Here's what it does.. say you're trying to streamline your production so you make some cool custom panels for your IDE.. you drop the SWFs for those into your "WindowSWFs" folder here (example path for a windowsXP box)
C:\Documents and Settings\{yourusername}\Local Settings\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash 8\en\Configuration\WindowSWF
That custom panel is then listed in the Flash IDE under Window>Other Panels> menu.
(That's just freakin awesome. I can't tell you how much time I've saved over the years with this one little feature. )
Now, the fun stuff. Lets say you have 5 SWFs in that folder for 5 different panels. In the "Other Panels" menu they show up as:
WindowSWF_1
WindowSWF_2
WindowSWF_3
WindowSWF_4
WindowSWF_5
Once this bug hits you never know what you'll get when you select WindowSWF_1 from the menu.. it might be the _3 panel, or maybe _4 opens.. and you can try opening all of them but you'll get duplicates of some and so never see that one you really need to use. It's kind of like Russian roulette when it starts.
I'm not sure what triggers it.. but once it starts it's locked in there and happens consistently. What fixes it? For me a reboot seems to do the trick until it strikes again. I probably hit this once a week or so.. so not a huge, major pita..
Again, it's been reported long ago, so just letting folks know that if you do hit this.. just reboot.. go get coffee..
