Are these steps for re-installing Gnome correct/safe?

[dave at tokyocomedy.com (Dave Gutteridge)]

I did all of the following:

><Control><Alt><F2> # get a text virtual console
>login as root
>cd /home/USER_NAME_OF_USER_YOU_WANT_TO_RESET
>mv .gnome .gnome.bak
>mv .gnome2 .gnome2.bak
>(much the same for kde)
>rm -fr /tmp/* # remove any existing session data stored in /tmp
><Alt><F7> # return to gdm/kdm login
>

... and still nothing has changed on my desktop. My Gnome environment is 
still not reset to it's default, or initial, settings.
Actually, one thing and one thing only has changed. At the top left of 
the screen, where there used to be a Red Hat red fedora icon, there is 
now a blue foot icon for Gnome. And just to the right of the 
"Applications" and "Actions" menus, there used to be two icons, one for 
Firefox and one for Thunderbird. Those two icons are now gone. And 
that's it. That's all tha changes by wiping out my .gnome and .gnome2 
settings.

This is weird. How can it be so difficult to reset Gnome back to default 
theme, icons, and menu items?

Dave