Problem with preference file

This weekend I started up Photoshop CS and started to work on some photos. When I went to the brush tools I noticed that my normal setting for the tool of it showing the full size of the tool was not there. What was there was the so called "precise " tool. I tried a tool reset, no change, I went to preferences and it showed the correct setting so I changed it to something else, no change. Anyway long story short, I dumped the preferences file, and that didn't fix the problem, so I rebooted then dumped the preference file and then it worked. Of course I had to go through all the setting and put them back.
This is DUMB, Photoshop shouldn't do this... Anyway it seems that it does and that brings up my question. Is it possible to save somewhere a golden copy of preferences? Then when there is a problem one just goes and copies the golden file over the bad file and goes on with ones work with out going through all the fuss of dumping and resetting everything.

John Passaneau

Yes. Just copy the file to another directory, or rename the copy.

I went looking for the file last night and couldn't find anything that seemed like the preference file. That is nothing with the word preference in it. So what is the file name and were is it hiding?

John Passaneau

John, a search with Windows Explorer will find "prefs.psp" on your drive. Once you find the one for Photoshop, right-click it and select "Open Containing Folder" to see all the .psp files. Copy the entire folder to preserve your Actions, Brushes, Workspaces, etc.

Could it be that the tool was in precise mode because your Caps Lock key was on? Rebooting would have fixed that, without dumping the prefs. Of course, tapping the Caps Lock key would have fixed it without rebooting.

It does at first seem dumb that Photoshop does not maintain a backup copy of the prefs folder, but how often should it do so? Too seldom, the backup becomes obsolete; too frequently, you end up with multiple bad copies. The best approach is for you to do it yourself.

Make hidden files visible if they aren't.

The preferences are in

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\8.0

Thanks everyone! It could have been the cap lock key, I had forgot about that one, but I did find the preference files and have copied them to a backup directory so if I need them they are there.

Thanks again.

John Passaneau