by Dennis Collin
AutoCAD has been around for many years and runs smoothly most of the time. However, at times unexpected things can happen; dialogue boxes disappear, tool palettes don’t display even when enabled and a quick fix is required to minimise down time.
I wrote a post some years ago on resetting the AutoCAD profile, that does reset and solve many issues:
However, if resetting the AutoCAD user profile doesn’t solve the problem, then another approach is to Reset AutoCAD back to default settings. For AutoCAD for Windows, run the app named Reset Settings to Default, located within the list of all applications accessed from the Windows Start menu.
For example: Windows 11: Start > AutoCAD 20xx > Reset Settings to Default
Note: Earlier AutoCAD versions on Windows 10 may have the reset option located under a general Autodesk group instead of the specific AutoCAD version.
The following example shows Reset Settings to Default on Windows 11 for AutoCAD 2025:
Fig 1. Easy method of resetting AutoCAD or LT to its ‘factory’ settings.
Follow the prompts and after a few minutes AutoCAD will be set back to its ‘factory’ defaults.
Users will be prompted to backup any custom settings to a zip file which can then be reapplied at a later stage.
AutoCAD LT doesn't have a reset profile within its options menu although it can also be reset to default using the same process shown above.
A lot of these processes, tips and tricks are covered on our custom AutoCAD courses, bespoke workshops or ‘at elbow days’. For more information visit https://arkance.world/gb-en/training or ask a question on the Live Chat facility where we can provide more help.