Trashing preferences - what is it how to do it?

I have seen answers that say to 'trash your pferences'. What does this mean? What does it do? Are there any risks? And HOW do I do it?
Many thanks.

FWIW, if you delete the plist file for an app, then the next time that app runs it'll create a new one based on it's default settings. So, the only danger is you'll lose all of your custom preferences settings. If you empty the entire Preferences folder and restart, you'll basically be back to where you were when you first started the machine. That means resetting everything except, AFAIK, your username and password.

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