Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: 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, first deactivate it (in the Editor, select Help → Deactivate). Then, in Vista go to Control Panel → "Uninstall a Program" (in Windows XP, Control Panel → "Add or Remove Programs") and remove Elements. Then reinstall the program.

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

Note

There's one downside to throwing out your preferences file: Once Elements supplies you with a replacement (which it generates automatically), you'll have to re-enter any changes you made to things like window behavior (Image Views) and other preferences. Your panels also go back to their original locations, so you'll need to rearrange them if you pulled any of them out of the bin. But deleting the preferences file doesn't affect your image files at all.

Here's how you delete the preferences file:

1. Quit the Editor if it's currently running, and then restart the Editor.

   Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift before you ...