Hi, thanks for the guide, but this problem was already addressed some time ago. Here's the solutions we come up with:
1) To make CodeBlocks visible after start, delete just the debugger plugin dll (debugger.dll). This is because the debugger plugin creates 6 "tool" windows which interfere with the main window. It's just this plugin.
2) To open the editor setting, delete all the plugins that make CodeBlocks crash when trying to open the settings dialog. I've deleted them all except the necessary plugins: compiler.dll, debugger.dll (but you can delete this too) and defaultmimehandler.dll. You can keep also the "small" plugins like codestat.dll, xpmanifest.dll, codesnippets.dll, envvars.dll, help_plugin.dll and so on.