attempt to reset AutoCAD to default settings made AutoCAD unusable, even after reinstallation

[pharperM724X]

Hi, the short version of this is that I attempted to do a simple thing, following Autodesk's instructions precisely, and now I can't open AutoCAD.

The long version:

I was having trouble with a new block. Its text attribute was not appearing. I found the instructions on this page and followed them in order, except the part about fixing a corrupt file. I got to the part about fixing a corrupt user profile and decided to try that. It said I should reset AutoCAD to its factory defaults. The instructions seemed straightforward so I tried that. I made sure to choose the option "Back up and Reset Settings", so I could undo the operation if necessary.

After I ran the Reset procedure, I got an IE window with the log. It contained many errors. Please see the attached file. I tried to open AutoCAD anyway and got this message: 
Configuration file may be locked by another process or have been set Read Only(.cfg, .bak).

File: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2023\acad2023.cfg

Please correct this problem and press Retry or press Cancel to exit the application.

I looked, and there is no acad2023.cfg file in the directory C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2023\. 

This obviously was no good, so I went to find the .zip file, so I could restore my original settings. I found it, but when I attempted to extract the zipped files, Windows told me that the file was invalid. It contains over 430,000KB, so there must be something there, but I can't access it.

I called our company's IT department and they thought the best bet would be to uninstall and reinstall AutoCAD. (This is a health care company and IT doesn't have much experience with AutoCAD.) So we uninstalled AutoCAD and reinstalled it. It still gives the same error when I try to open it. There is still no file named acad2023.cfg. 

I tried running "Reset Settings to Default" again with my new installation. This time, it says 

AutoCAD 2023 - English has not been run yet. There are no settings to reset.

Our IT department thought I might be able to copy an acad2023.cfg file from someone else, and just put it in the right spot, but so far I haven't been able to reach anyone else who uses AutoCAD. I am also not confident that that will work. I've lost a day of work due to this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[mdavis22569 · Accepted solution]

 Try doing a clean uninstall first

Download a full new installer. 

Turn of the Anti-Virus  

Run the installer as an ADMIN

Don't add  anything / migrate anything.  Test it all first.

Let us know the results of that.

[Simon_Weel]

For this kind of problems, I created a script to 'reset' AutoCAD. It basically does two things; delete the registry key and delete the user profile. Maybe that will solve your problem too?

This script is for AutoCAD 2021:

@Anonymous off

echo:
echo All settings for AutoCAD 2021 will be deleted.
echo:

tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acad.exe" | find /I /N "acad.exe"
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" goto inuse

reg delete "hkcu\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R24.0" /f

rd /s /q "%appdata%\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2021"

cls
echo:
echo AutoCAD will be re-configured after starting.
echo:
goto end

:inuse
cls
echo:
echo AutoCAD is in use. Close AutoCAD and try again.
echo:

:end

pause

[pharperM724X]

I'm sorry to take so long replying to this. IT and I had such a hard time with it that I completely forgot about the forum. 

We tried a clean install and that didn't go nearly as smoothly as expected. There were four Autodesk processes running and they stopped us from deleting all the files. We killed 3 of the processes but the 4th one, AdSSO, kept restarting itself. So we deleted all the files that we could delete, but there were maybe half a dozen files left (and the folders they were in).

We went ahead and did a fresh installation anyway. The IT guy refused to turn off the anti-virus, so I don't know if that would have helped. After the reinstall we restarted the computer. AutoCAD started, but still had errors. (don't remember which errors exactly, we did a lot of messing with it last week)

Our final resolution: the IT department sent me a new laptop and we installed AutoCAD on that. So, still no idea what was actually going on, or how to fix it.

Thanks for the advice anyway!

[pharperM724X]

Thank you for the script! I now have a fresh installation of AutoCAD on a new laptop, so I'm just not going to try anything unusual for the time being. I'll keep it in mind, though!

[mdavis22569]

No worries, glad you're up and going again.

Any of these you can pick for a solution and close this out? 

Mike

[wizard_ettore]

Thank you. I had a problem where AutoCAD 2025 installed itself corrupt, and to can't reset it because it has never run. I uninstalled and re-installed, but that didn't work. Instead of doing that again, I found your solution, took your script's intent, modified it for 2025, and off to the races: problem solved.

reg delete needs to be changed to R25.0

... and the AutoCAD 2025 folder was never created yet so I didn't have to do that part.