Settings reset after log out

This is my first Mac and I have to say... This is a disappointing first experience!

My first configuration steps were to setup two user accounts. One for me (administrator) and one for my wife (standard). My account has been working fine. My wife on the other hand is a different story. Any changes made in system preferences or application preferences are lost after she logs out. I've been very surprised to see the lack of responses to people posting this same problem. I leveraged Apple Support under my initial 90 day coverage. They had me delete plist files pertaining to the dock and desktop. Those file deletions resolved the problems with changes pertaining to those areas of the system. Unfortunately the fix of deleting plist files didn't resolve other system preference changes being reverted to original settings after log out.

There has to be a better answer to the root cause of this behavior in OS/X. I've upgraded my Macbook Pro to Mountain Lion and my wife's account still has these issues. Since deleting some plist files work and others don't I'd love to find the core problem and resolve it without creating a new profile, copying all the data to it and crossing my fingers that the new profile doesn't behave the same.

Since I've seen a lot of dead posts on this forum and others I feel like my chances on this being answered are slim. Thank you in advance to any white knight who stumbles across this post and has an answer!