When I click to open an Adobe Illustrator file it locks upj

When I click to open an Adobe Illustrator file it locks up Illustrator and I have to go to the task manager to force it closed. I have to open up all my Illustrator and Photoshop files by navigating to the file and right clicking and doing an "open with". I can't just double click the file to open it. I heard it had to do with a snafu regarding printer drivers or something. I have an HP printer so I offloaded all the HP software but the problem with Illustrator still exists. Any answer to this problem?

I would say your preference file is corrupted! Navigate to this area: C:>Documents and Settings > User >Application Data > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator (Your version of Illustrator will be in the folder name.) > Settings. Inside this folder is a file called AIPrefs. Drag this file to the trash bucket, and then restart Illustrator. Older versions of Illy allowed you when starting the programme to hold down Ctrl + Shift + Alt and this would take you a dialogue box just click Yes and this would generate a new preference file. Doesn't work with CS6, don't know about the rest.