Why does Windows Temporarily Revert?

Whenever I leave my computer on for long period of time, sometimes 4+ hours, when I come back to the welcome screen, it says I'm "logged on" even if I had 5 programs running before or something. I log on, and any program that wasn't running already is set back to its complete defaults. I open Outlook, it asks for a mail server. I open Internet Explorer, and it goes to the first home page I had. When I reboot, everything's completely normal. And if this happens again, whatever things in this secondary mirror of programs comes back. Does anybody know what the heck I'm talking about, and how to fix it?

😑 never happened to me.

problem could be situated in you not actually being logged on, but my "knowledge" about this subject is very limited

Possibly, but Windows shouldn't just do that whenever it feels like it... it should stay the way I put it 😖

hey, it's windows, it's your own problem 😛

🙁

checked the options?

Which options? The "Revert to factory default after a set time of being idle" options? Haven't found them... 😬

I've looked around, but there's nothing I can find that would cause this.

just in general of course 😛

In that case, I've found nothing. 😛

well, to me it sounds like you aren't logged in 🙁

Not logged into what? 🤨

windows 😑

I meant I've found nothing that would affect my computer in that way or fix the problem in the options, trust me, I'm logged in 😉

but if you re logged in, how come it's back in original setting?

That's what I'm trying to figure out. Here's how it goes.
*Sits down and is on computer*
*Goes away, turns monitor off, leaves computer on welcome screen while still logged in with programs running*
*Comes back to computer, "X Programs Running" has changed to saying "Logged on"*
*Type in password*
*Any programs that were not already open act like this is the first time running them; Microsoft Word asks for activation, Internet Homepage is the factory set VAIO page, some desktop items are removed, some are added, desktop is gray, XP Theme changed from Silver to Olive or Blue, Toolbars missing on Browser, etc...*

And all of that goes back to the way I had it with a restart, but it shouldn't do that... and why is it so forgiving that it's back the way it was with a simple restart?

I stick to my point still... untill raz says what's wrong

Alrighty then. Thanks for the input, though. Hopefully someone knows what's exactly going on 😬

*waits for Raz*

It looks like your computer goes into standby after a few hours. Check the power section in the control panel.

and if that's not it, in BIOS there is an option to I believe