[GF_Mastiff]

nope I know better than that, some how the new nvidia drivers corrupted the install .

My hard drive is 1.5 TB and has 4 partitions all my games are on D:\Games\I have full owner ship no UAC.

Sounds like you're using Vista or Win7 and have the game installed in the default directory
... C:\program files x86\ubisoft\Il2 1946........

Files that are in this location that are considered system files (such as config files) store a back up copy when they are accessed. If you don't have FULL control, (disable UAC), when you exit the program after making changes, the new file is compared to the old saved one and if you don't have full control, the old one is put back in.

You can avoid this in two different ways.

1. Disable UAC
2. Move IL-2 to a different directory.