Comment 1 for bug 194241

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Tom Davidson (tjd-mit) wrote : Re: preferences.xml not a valid XML file, or you dont have read permissions on it. inkscape will run with default settings, new settings will not be saved

What OS are you running, and what version of Inkscape? Is this on a fresh install, or have you been using it for a while and this just started happening?

Can you please attach your preferences.xml file to this bug report:
If on Windows, it should be in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Inkscape\preferences.xml
If on Linux, look in ~/.inkscape/preferences.xml