Photoshop won't stay open, help!
 

OS: Windows XP
Processor: Yes?
Motherboard: what??
RAM: uhHh?
HD: size, type, partitioned
Media: floppy, Zip, CDROM, CDR,
Browser: Mozilla

I've had my same photoshop 7.0 for a long time but the last couple days when I start the program it runs through the opening sequence of loading and whatever else it does and then it disappears forever. I've tryed reinstalling, now what can I do? I've been using an old 5.0 version I had laying around but it's not the same, will anyone help???

tried reinstalling, plus there's also upgrades such as cs

I had that happen to me a while ago, and i seem to recall it being a corrupt preference file... only I can't recall where that preference file is located...

do you still have the install disks and serial number to reinstall?

You can delete/re-create the prefs by holding down ctrl-alt-shift while you launch PhotoShop.

Otherwise, it's in:
documents and settings/username/application data/adobe/photoshop/x.0/adobe photoshop x.0 settings/blah blah prefs.psp

Mine would shut down on me because of RAM(usually upon opening its browser). On the advice of SiN, i changed the available disk space from 384/768 to 768/1024 and that eliminated the problem.

You can also set up a scratch drive.

Photoshop recommends you do so on a different partition, or even disk, than the one that has your OS and Photoshop installed on.

Give it a fixed size, quite large. Photoshop is a spoilt brat and likes a big playpen.
Also, you might want to move your 3rd party plugins and fonts to a separate folder from the photoshop defualt install and add them back one by one.
Font folders can slow photoshop down horribly. I prefer to only install them when I know I'll be using it otherwise they just sit there for years and slow down my search for the more common ones.

Interesting. None of my font folders are in PS, they're separate in my program files. I do, however, carry a huge amount of plug-ins, all within the PS7 effect/plugins folder.
You're right about the big playpen, though. All my Adobe programs are freakin huge! IllustratorCS is the largest at 331mb, PS is the smallest at 188, even with the plugins. Indesign weighs in at 191.
By comparison, my entire Macromedia setup weighs in at 493, with Director, Dreamweaver and Flash, all MX series.

Never have PS look at the default areas for plugins. If you want to get rid of them it's a real bitch having to sort through and figure which are the dysfunctional ones.

Let it keep the defaults in the installation folder and look in another folder for the add-ons.

I deleted the pref. file and now all is well, I thank you noble creatures!