Mark, I don’t think this is a Registry issue. PS seems to store its list of recent files in the "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.psp" file, which is here:
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\7.0\Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings.
From the plugin details you posted, it looks like the eraser goes to that folder and deletes the entire Preferences file. So, you lose the recent file list, and everything else too. That’s why you get the color-settings prompt.
The eraser plugin also looks at the Registry’s HKCU\Software\Adobe\Photoshop\7.0\VisitedDirs subkey, which contains the STARTUPIMAGEDIRECTORY path. I don’t know why it does this, because this location has nothing to do with the recent file list.
Anyway, unless there’s a way to get the eraser to selectively delete the recent file list from within the Preferences file, you might have to find some other means (if there is any) to do what you want.
Thanks John,
From what you write, this leaves me in a dilema. I do need the most recently used file to be deleted after each session and I think the only way I can do this is by deleting the entire preferences file. I have opened the preferences file in a text editor and it looks as though it would be somehow possible to find the part relating to the MRU file, but the eraser program cannot securely delete a specific portion of the preferences file.
I found the the Photoshop preferences file and it does get deleted after I have run the eraser plugin. To prevent myself from having to manually reset the other preferences every time, would it make sense to set them up once, then copy the file to another part of the hard drive, then copy the file back to the PS7 settings folder before using Photoshop?
Even then, it is still a bit of a hassle to manually copy and paste the preference file every time I want to use Photoshop. I wonder whether John or someone else who is more computer literate than me could devise a simple script or some other way that I could click on an icon on the desktop that then copies a master preference file from one directory to the correct settings directory? Again, a big thanks in advance.
Btw, if anyone wants to send me a file my email address is
What about a little batch file that would
1. Copy the master prefs file,
2. Launch Photoshop,
3. Erase the prefs file on exiting Photoshop
That way every new PS session would be begin with a fresh file containing no recent file list.
what about just setting the recent file list to 0 in photoshop? Edit> Prefences> File Handling> Recent file list shows X files.
dave,
The recent file count is for display only. In other words Photoshop still tracks the files even if they are not shown. It sounds like mark wants to cover his tracks for whatever reason so all someone would need to do is set the count back to a higher number to view the file history.
In other words Photoshop still tracks the files even if they are not shown
Are you sure? I’ve never heard that.
write protecting the prefs file after setting it up would work too.
Mark,
What John said will work, but it isn’t necessary. Setting your "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.psp" file to read only will work just fine if you can set your app to not include Photoshop in the purge.
Photoshop doesn’t use the OpenSaveMRU keys so registry modifications have no effect.
Dave,
Are you sure? I’ve never heard that.
Try it yourself if you don’t believe me 🙂
Dave,
Sorry didn’t see your #8 post.
Yep, I think that even if the recent file list is set to 0, the information is still in the preferences file, even if it is not available from the photoshop menu.
I like John’s idea of having a batch file that does everything. Step 3 would not be necessary because this happens automatically and more efficiently when I shut down the computer and the eraser software kicks in, but I especially like the idea of step two – incorporating a Photoshop launch. Could I still adopt the PS7 icon on the batch file, so it would be just like clicking on the Photoshop icon on the desktop.
Problem is I have no idea where to start when it comes to creating files that do this stuff. I would love it if someone could show me how to do step 1 and 2.
Could I still adopt the PS7 icon on the batch file, so it would be just like clicking on the Photoshop icon on the desktop.
Yes. Just make your photoshop shortcut point to the batch file instead and keep using the photoshop icon for the shortcut.
For steps 1 & 2.
Create a new bat file somewhere (Photoshop folder would be good). Edit the file in notepad
Type these three lines…
COPY "[From (path and file name)]" "[To (path and file name)]" "C:\Program Files\Photoshop 7.0\Photoshop.exe" (Assuming default location) EXIT
Change the first line to match your system. Here is a basic example…
COPY "D:\Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.psp" "C:\Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.psp" "C:\Program Files\Photoshop 7.0\Photoshop.exe" EXIT
You don’t need to delete the prefs if you are still running the eraser app. If you no longer want to run the app just set the prefs file to read only and you don’t need the batch file.
Thanks to everyone who replied. I tried to make the pref file read only. I noticed that when opening new files, they DO go into the MRU files. But they are not saved when exiting out of Photoshop. Whenever one goes back into Photoshop the MRU files are whatever they were when the pref file was made read only.
The question is, where is the information stored during the Photoshop session when the MRU is updated until exiting? Presumedly the preferences file. There remains a small chance then that although the MRU is not properly saved on a read-only pref file when exiting, small fragments of evidence remain. This is a risk I cannot take in my profession.
I have therefore gone for the bat file option that effectively restores a master preference file after previous ones have been destroyed. Thanks Photohelp for the code.
It’s pretty easy copy a default "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Prefs.psp" file from a holding location into the ‘Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\8.0\Adobe Photoshop CS Settings’ folder, overwriting whatever’s in there that needs getting rid of.
1) Setup your preferences to taste.
2) Copy the "Adobe Photoshop CS Prefs.psp" to some easy to find location (the desktop?)
3) Make a folder shortcut on your desktop to the ‘Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\8.0\Adobe Photoshop CS Settings’ folder
4) Drag the default "Adobe Photoshop CS Prefs.psp" file into the folder shortcut and that’s it.
This can also be used to restore lost preferences. You could also include a command to automatically do this every time the computer starts by including a copy command in the autoexec.bat file (WindowsXP does have one too)
Hope this helps arrive at a practical solution for you.
Russell
Never mind… I see that Photo Help came up with a better solution 🙂
Russell
Mark,
No problem.
I was also talking about the windows file that tracks all MRU files regardless of application. You may want to double check the registry key below. Although I would think that any program that goes to the trouble of deleting a Photoshop preference file should delete the OpenSaveMRU’s with no problem.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSaveMRU
The question is, where is the information stored during the Photoshop session when the MRU is updated until exiting?
My guess would be memory or possibly scratch. Either way temporary and it is doubtful that your application is doing anything about it anyway. If the file is read only Photoshop will not write to it.
Russell,
It wasn’t my solution, I just posted the instructions on the implementation. I would have just made the file read only. 🙂
I still feel the file should be read only either way and this is why… As long as that file is not write protected the Recent Documents list will still be written to the current Photoshop preference file. On Exit Mark will run the program that clears the preferences. The only thing that program is doing is deleting the file meaning that the file can be recovered.
Mark,
If you are going to use the batch file you should probably add one additional line after the COPY and before launching Photoshop…
ATTRIB +R [Path and file name you are copying to]
Everything is hunkidory now. I am using the bat file AND read-only preferences. One last thing, and it is the tiniest of things. When I run the bat file, the DOS-like screen stays open until I either exit out of Photoshop or close it manually. Is there a command I can type at the end of the bat file to close this automitically? Probably not. I shouldn’t be so blooming lazy!
the EXIT command will do that, but will also terminate the bat file. if you want it to clean up after ps closes, you need to leave it up until you exit ps so it can return control to the bat file to finish processing.
Hi, opening photoshop is the last thing I want to do with the bat file.
I have done some research over the last couple of hours and discovered that when an application is started by the bat file, the bat file does not continue with any other bat commands until the application is closed.
Other people on the net have found that this means that only the first application opens even if they asked for several to be opened in their bat file. So inclusing CLS or EXIT won’t work.
Some have found that adding the word start before the path and file name works for them, but I haven’t managed to get this to work yet (my app doesn’t open at all). Can someone give me an example of the exact syntax?
The other thing I wondered was setting the bat file to open a file (that would open the PS app) instead of asking it to open the app itself. Eg. Double clicking the pref file opens the PS7 app but doesn’t do much else. Any1 know how to open a file (not an app) through the bat file?
P.S. Re. After re-reading the first line of previous msg.
Opening Photoshop is LITERALLY the last (final) thing I want to do with the bat file!!
start photoshop.exe
exit
should work…
Yep thanks dave and every1 else.
