Epson!

(Thought so!)

:-(

Try disabling the TWAIN plug-in.

I just grabbed the twain plug in from the CS2 plug-ins > import/Export folder and dragged it to the desktop. I then opened CS2 3 times and no new strange folders appeared in the preference folder. It looks like an Epson thing...

Bingo - move it back in there and the strangeness starts immediately when Photoshop is next started.

Epson make excellent Scanners and Printers but the less said about their Drivers, the better.

I would seriously suggest spending the extra money for SilverFast Ai — especially if you ever have to scan color negatives.

I gave up on Epson printers quite a while back because of their lousy drivers with OS X and have used Canon ever since. My scanner is good for a basic flatbed, but these days it only gets used for scanning the occasional document or similar.

Ann,

I tried out my scanner/TWAIN test with an Epson Perfection 1650 and the stock EPSON Scan Utility and TWAIN Driver v2.65A. Works just fine for my limited scanning needs but I don't do photography and fairly seldom scan them. Again, so far no weird files...maybe they've been scared off!

Ashley,

I just used an Epson 4500 to print US C enlargements of several photographs and a couple of poster sized images yesterday and was blown away by how good the drivers were. Maybe Epson has finally turned the corner!

BEEP BEEP BEEP! Weird prefs alert!

Yesterday I was launching apps trying to find culprits and only came up with one, Internet Explorer which I almost never use but still have around out of habit, I guess.

Then this morning, upon first launch of Photoshop CS2 and empty folder was created in the User > Library > Preferences called ¶?L. Photoshop is a culprit! Bad, Photoshop, BAD! Go sit in a corner.

I haven't seen a single new weird preference appear in the library since pulling out the twain plug-in for the Epson 3200. Previously a new empty folder was generated every time I started CS 2. I also have Internet Explorer (sad but still the only solution sometimes) and it hasn't been causing any problems.

Hmmm, that's good to know, Ahsley. I'm afraid I'm not going to pull my Epson TWAIN plugin, though as it, and the Epson scanner software does a good enough job for my limited needs. I don't actually care about these strange pref files as they seem to cause no problems. I'm just curious.