Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual

Troubleshooting

If Elements behaves badly from the moment you install it, something probably went funky during your installation. That's easy to fix. Uninstall Elements and reinstall it.

To remove Elements, in Windows XP go to Control Panel → "Add or Remove Programs" (in Vista, Control Panel → "Uninstall a Program") and remove Elements. Then reinstall the program. You can't perform a Repair Install for Elements—you just get an error message that keeps asking for the CD. (Repair installs are used for some programs to fix problems without having to do a full reinstall.)

Fortunately, Adobe makes very good software that looks after itself very well. There is, however, one simple procedure you can perform if things start acting funny in Elements: delete your Elements preferences file, which is where Elements keeps track of your preferred settings for the program. Deleting it fixes the over-whelming majority of problems you may develop. In Elements, you'll most likely to need to delete the preferences file when dealing with Editor-related problems.

Note

There is one downside to throwing out your preferences file: Once Elements supplies you with a replacement (which it generates automatically), you'll have to reenter any changes you made to things like window behavior (Image Views) and the Editor's preferences. Your palettes also go back to their original locations; you'll need to rearrange them if you pulled any of them out of the bin. (However, deleting the preferences doesn't affect your ...