How to Reset All Preferences to Default in Photoshop

There are many reasons that you may want to return your copy of Adobe Photoshop CS3 back to its factory default preferences. It puts every palette and setting back to the way it was when you first bought Photoshop CS3. This allows you to more easily follow tutorials or undo changes that you are not interested in keeping.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Photoshop CS3

Instructions

1. Hold down the "Ctrl," "Alt" and "Shift" keys all at the same time on your keyboard. These are the three modifier keys that instruct Photoshop to reset all of your preferences back to default.

2. Start Adobe Photoshop CS3 while holding the three modifier keys down.

3. Continue holding the three modifier keys down until you see a dialog box appear on the screen with the words: "Delete the Adobe Photoshop Settings File?"

4. Click the "Yes" button in the dialog box to confirm that you want to delete the Adobe Photoshop settings file and return all settings back to the factory default settings. The dialog box will close and startup will resume until Photoshop is fully opened.

5. Release the three modifier keys and either close Adobe Photoshop CS3 or continue to work on your Photoshop documents.

Tips & Warnings

• Choosing the "No" button from the Adobe Photoshop CS3 dialog box in Step 3 closes the dialog box and doesn't reset all of your preferences to factory default.