First of all thanks for all your help, i'm sure you are quite busy and appreciate you looking into things

Just to let you know my latest testing...
I have uninstalled stardock central and object desktop, also deleting folders from c: and also the registry.
I have downloaded the free version for 'Vista Ultimate' users and installed it without SD central or Impulse.
No water dream present.
I have uninstalled deskscapes again using the above method and downloaded SD central and using it to dload the latest deskscapes.
Water dream and other free dreams present.
Still reverts to default.
I have uninstalled using the above method and installed Impulse, dloading latest deskscapes... still reverts to default.
I'm pretty sure something happened to the water dream in an update possibly just prior to 2.0 as before then I could always change the backdrop and it would always save it, since 2.0 I cannot personalize the water dream.
Just thought I would update you on my latest findings