A few people never need to reset preferences. My computer, with Vista 64, runs PsCS4 very well. However, I need to reset preferences fairly often. I have no idea why. I keep a folder called "PsCS4 PREFS" on my desktop. In that folder I keep two files. One is a Word document that contains (C:\Users\owner\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Adobe Photoshop CS4 Settings). This is a link that I paste into Windows Explorer which takes me to where the preferences are located. I then place a ~ at the beginning of the file called (Adobe Photoshop X64 Prefs.psp). This is the preferences file and is not recognized by Photoshop after adding the ~. Of course, it could simply be deleted.
The other file in my desktop folder is a good copy of my preferences that I then control drop & drag into the folder where the old preferences are located. THIS IS ALL DONE WITH PHOTOSHOP CLOSED. This only takes a couple of minutes to do and saves having to reset each individual setting.
The following probably only applies to my computer. If I suspect bad preferences I go to the Diffuse Filter and try to apply it to a photo. If, in the preview, everything that should be whiter is black I know my prefs are bad. I then use the above steps to repair them.
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