Expert: Amy - 9/3/2004

Question
I cannot open my Adobe Ilustrator CS application. It all started when i was trying to install a tutorial cd-rom, but what i did was change my preferences to boot from my CD drive (accidentally). now the application cannot open. i have been opening the program files on the hard drive and cannot seem to open the preferences file at all. all the files are all there and non are corrupt, it is just booting from a totally wrong scource.

Q: can I access and change the preferences within Adobe Illustrator CS so that it will boot from its default location and settings without opening the program directly?

    i would very much appreciate help with this problem

Answer
Hi Rafael,

Simply locate and delete the AIprefs file using your machine's find file utility; this erases all preferences and the next time you start Illustrator, it will launch using the default prefs and create a new AIprefs file.

I didn't know that Illustrator had the capability to boot from another location... I've glanced through the AIprefs file (using a text editor) but there are no entries of that nature.  Towards the end, there is a line that references the location of the color management file using a full path statement but all the other entries reference things in relation to the location of the application.

If getting rid of the prefs file doesn't work, you will most likely need to reinstall the Illustrator application.

Good luck!
Amy