I am re-installing the Arduino IDE now, see if I can get it to start or not 
thanks for the replies.
I love the Arduino IDE, but I had to switch to Atmel Studio because I am virtually blind and I cannot see the font that Arduino IDE uses at all. I have made it 26 size font and it is still very difficult to see due to contrast, and letter thickness (apparently lots of people have this problem). Also - not to complain but the font selection is absolutely terrible on the IDE, if anyone knows a hack to change the font (not just the size) on the Arduino IDE I could consider switching back to that for all of my development needs.
Thanks again!!