I was editing startup flags trying (once again) to get the Cream library to run on Windows 7 and accidentally added a quotation mark.
Because of this I am getting the dastardly error message posted below and I can not longer enter the startup area of the preferences to delete or edit this!

I have reinstalled Pd but that did not help (as startup flags are carried forward from the old installation)
I have also tried the "Forget" option in preferences but that charmingly reports that there is "nothing to forget"

I think what I need to do is trash the preferences file, but I cannot figure out where it is. On mac it is called Plist. Is anyone familiar with where I find this on Windows 7? Following the recommendation on the Pd website, I have looked in the registry using REGEDIT or whatever it is called but only see reference to Pd-Extended (I also have extended on this machine but that should not effect this I do not think). I think that is probably old info up there.!

I am attaching a sad screenshot so you can see the error:
error.PNG

ok! for anyone else who is on a newer version of Windows and ever needs to trash the preferences file, I have found the solution.

It is similar to what is given on the Pd site ([https://puredata.info/docs/faq/pdsettings])
but not the same
you do use REGEDIT to get at it, which is the built in Windows registry tool (careful!)
because the registry address (at least for me on Windows 7) is not HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Pd
as it says there, but rather UP in HKEY_CURRENT_USER
don't be fooled, there is an entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Pd, but this only contains default registry information
instead go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Pure-Data ->
and there you find two sets of entries
clicking on HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Pure-Data -> org,puredata.pd.pdgui
only gives registry entries pertinent to Deken
however clicking on the first, parent folder called Pure-Data
gives an itemized list of each entry you have made to your preferences
so you can just scroll until you find whatever the offensive preference is from the list and select delete with that one highlighted in REGEDIT

anyway, hope this helps someone!
J