Well... day late and a dollar short since you already re-installed windows, but...
On PC you can back up all your settings. It's in [My Documents]/My Games/[Something FFXIV sounding]
And in wow you could have done that too. Everyone reading this should make a backup right now!
The launcher also has a backup feature... but the wording makes it sound like it's only for the UI. I have not used it, so I'm unsure,
It's also really useful for copying settings if you make an alt. Problem is that each character is in its own very cryptic sounding folder. You need to do a bit of hacking to figure out which folder to transfer the settings out of. I open the logs in notepad to read the text to try and guess which character it is.
Your UI, your macros, your hotbars, everything is in different files. You can copy the files you need to the other character... or just back up the whole FFXIV folder if you just need a backup.
The cryptic string of letters and numbers that represents your character folder (seems like it) is your forever. When you re-install the random folder will be the same for each charecter... so it's just a matter of copying your backup right back to where it was... and poof: all your settings are restored.
If you are savvy with the operating system, you can move it from your MyGames folder into your DropBox (or whatever) folder. Then you make a hard-link (junction) back into your MyGames folder. This way it all backs up automaticly whenever you make a change. That's what I do. FFXIV thinks it's writing to your MyGames folder, but since you made a hard-link it's actually writing to your DropBox folder.
I almost think someone should clean up my wording, figure out the exact paths, and make this a sticky or something. I've pointed it out in this thread a half dozen times, and in my FC chat about as often. Always once it's too late. There's obviously a need for this information. OK, it's probabaly not worth a sticky, but I feel bad for people whenever I hear this and wish more people knew it.