Illustrator locks up when trying to open the preference window

Question

I have CS5 on windows 7. When I try to open the preference window illustrator locks up and will not open it. I can hit escape and it will go back to working fine. I have tried leaving it thinking maybe it was an odd loading issue but nothing changes. Other than this everything works perfectly fine it just refuses to open the preference window. I have tried searching but I can't find any one else with this issue, I am hoping to avoid having to reinstall it but it is starting to look like that may be my only option.

Answer 1

crutchlets,
You may consider at least two approaches.
One is to wildly increase the monitor resolution to see whether it is hiding somewhere out there, in which case you can drag it into the area with the other things, then reduce again and clean up the mess.
Another one is to try the relevant steps in the following list (1) - 4) and 6) as the last resort).
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html