flip, I would still like an answer to this that I posted earlier. Did you try it? Did it work? If so, that will help a lot of folks in the future, with the same "mysteriously lost stuff" problem.
So, you didn't do this? Or it didn't work?
OK - so log in as some other user with Administrative privileges, and change the password on "flip" to something else.
...
Then log out, and log in as "flip". See if the icon and your MA3 settings are back.