the program crashes after that error, I never even get a chance to see the main window to get to options > preferences.   
thanks for the speedy reply, I also tried the dev version you posted above, and the 1.6 version running I'm running windows 7 64bit   
edit: (7:20pm) got it working, not sure what I did differently, rebooted, re downloaded the newest version (I already tried this exact step) and it's working now.   
edit2: well, I got the program to load. I then went through uploading the pdf, and to assign the kneeboard and it force closed.  Now I can't get it working again. Definitely seems to be some kind of issue with my windows, I am using a theme which changes some of the registry keys, would that be an issue possibly? reason I say this is the windows compatibility check thing came up.   
here is the event log of the error.   
Log Name:      Application 
Source:        Application Error 
Date:          2/28/2015 7:27:54 PM 
Event ID:      1000 
Task Category: (100) 
Level:         Error 
Keywords:      Classic 
User:          N/A 
Computer:      cmason-PC 
Description: 
Faulting application name: KneeboardBuilder.exe, version: 1.6.4.0, time stamp: 0x54d910c2 
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.1.7601.18409, time stamp: 0x5315a05a 
Exception code: 0xc000041d 
Fault offset: 0x000000000000940d 
Faulting process id: 0x20f0 
Faulting application start time: 0x01d053b68cb44c27 
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\DCSWorld\kneeboard builder\New Folder (2)\KneeboardBuilder.exe 
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll 
Report Id: cd135cc2-bfa9-11e4-8b67-902b3432384d 
Event Xml: 
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"> 
  <System> 
    <Provider Name="Application Error" /> 
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID> 
    <Level>2</Level> 
    <Task>100</Task> 
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> 
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-03-01T00:27:54.000000000Z" /> 
    <EventRecordID>34221</EventRecordID> 
    <Channel>Application</Channel> 
    <Computer>cmason-PC</Computer> 
    <Security /> 
  </System> 
  <EventData> 
    <Data>KneeboardBuilder.exe</Data> 
    <Data>1.6.4.0</Data> 
    <Data>54d910c2</Data> 
    <Data>KERNELBASE.dll</Data> 
    <Data>6.1.7601.18409</Data> 
    <Data>5315a05a</Data> 
    <Data>c000041d</Data> 
    <Data>000000000000940d</Data> 
    <Data>20f0</Data> 
    <Data>01d053b68cb44c27</Data> 
    <Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\DCSWorld\kneeboard builder\New Folder (2)\KneeboardBuilder.exe</Data> 
    <Data>C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll</Data> 
    <Data>cd135cc2-bfa9-11e4-8b67-902b3432384d</Data> 
  </EventData> 
</Event>   
thanks for your time AlaskanGrizzly