Illustrator freezes my computer

[AVDG]

After using illustrator for some minutes (about 10 minutes) all of a sudden freezes my computer and there is nothing I can do but manually restart it to make it work again (which means I lose whatever I have done in any other program) I am frustrated and this never happened to me before. Ctrl+alt+delete doesn't work to make illustrator stop so I can save other files. What should I do? Thank you.

[Monika Gause]

Please tell us about your hardware, system and Illustrator version.

Did you just update your version?

Did you install anything else on the computer? Maybe a plugin for Illustrator? New printer? New font? Font management?

Does that only happen in certain files? Or all files? New files or old ones?

[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

If this is a new problem, possibly from having recently updated Illustrator then try resetting your Illustrator preferences. This will restore the program to its defaults and hopefully lead to a smoother running Illustrator.

To do so on a PC:

You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching Illustrator and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so: On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator [version number]\ Settings\<Language>. Make sure that Illustrator is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files in this manner is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @AVDG,

Sorry to hear about this experience. I hope the suggestions shared by Monika and Bill helped resolve the problem. If not, kindly try running Illustrator under a different administrator account and check if it helps.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anubhav