Elements 2018 resets all settings every time it opens

[captainkuiper]

I use Elements for drawing purposes. I've been using it for years and I have no idea what's changed, but recently it's begun essentially going back to 'factory defaults' every time I open it. I always leave it in Expert and I have it set so it retains my preferences on launch (it'll keep my colors, brushes, etc) but now, it's opening in Guided with colors #ffffff and #000000, no layer dialog, all my brushes reset, and in Guided mode. It's acting like I just installed it and am opening it for the first time, but I have no idea how to fix it or why it happened.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Phinny]

That's got to be smarting pretty good, Captain.  Try this and it's just a wild guess.  Go to Preferences > General in your Edit menu and choose, Reset preferences on next lauch.  Then relaunch and immediately exit the program.  Next, right click on Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 inside C:\Program Files\ Adobe folder and choose Run as administrator.  Set your brushes, colors, etc the way you like them in expert mode again and see if they're remembered on next launch.  Note: You won't need to run as administrator on subsequent launches.