Adobe Illustrator crashes on startup, how can I recover my corrupted preferences and files?

"If Illustrator crashes on startup, reset your preferences by holding Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (macOS) while launching — this forces creation of fresh preference files.

To recover corrupted or unsaved work, relaunch Illustrator (or force quit then reopen) and it should start an auto-recovery process, opening files with the “Recovered” suffix.

If crashes persist, uninstall Illustrator using the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool, delete all leftover preference and cache directories, then reinstall fresh — always back up your current prefs first."