In my experience, Dreamweaver is a very stable program; but like all software, it occasionally misbehaves. There have been a lot of reports recently about Dreamweaver crashing on start up. Nearly everyone affected is using an Acer computer. Apparently, there’s a known conflict between Dreamweaver and Acer eDataSecurity Management v3.0. If you’re on an Acer, and Dreamweaver won’t start, download the patch from http://www.egistec.com/oem-acer001/program-update.html.

Most of the time, however, the cause is a corrupted cache file called WinFileCache-********.dat or MacFileCache-********.dat inside your personal Dreamweaver configuration folder (the asterisks represent a series of letters and numbers that might differ from computer to computer). The solution is quite simple: close Dreamweaver and delete WinFileCache-********.dat or MacFileCache-********.dat, depending on your operating system.

The location of the personal configuration folder depends on your operating system and version of Dreamweaver. For Dreamweaver CS4, it’s as follows:

• Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver CS4\<language>\Configuration
• Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\Dreamweaver CS4\<language>\Configuration
• Mac OS X: Macintosh HD:<username>:Library:Application Support:Adobe:Dreamweaver CS4:<language>:Configuration

In all cases, <username> is the name of your user account on the computer and <language> indicates the language of your operating system. The language is usually represented by two pairs of characters separated by an underscore, as in en_US (English), es_ES (Spanish), or fr_FR (French).

Earlier versions of Dreamweaver locate the personal configuration folder in a slightly different location. This is where it can be found in Dreamweaver CS3:

• Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration
• Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration
• Mac OS X: Macintosh HD:Users:<username>:Library:Application Support:Adobe:Dreamweaver 9:Configuration

The Dreamweaver configuration folders are hidden on Windows, so you need to enable the option to view hidden files and folders in order to locate them, as follows:

• In Vista, select Start > Computer > Organize > Folder and Search Options > View. In Advanced settings, choose Show hidden files and folders.
• In Windows XP, select Start > My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View. In Advanced settings, choose Show hidden files and folders.

Once you turn on this option, hidden folders are displayed as dimmed icons to remind you to treat them with care.