All versions except Home Studio 7 (2008) crash at the splash screen when I have Windows Media Player or a standalone instrument already open. My other DAWs open fine so why is this an issue with CW products?
 
I've tried deleting the aud.ini file. As soon as CW recreates it, it crashes. POOOF!!!!
 
I would sure like to be able to open CW while other apps are in use.
 
Is there a way to open Preferences w/o launching CW?

Just tried that on mine.  Opened Windows Media Player then Sonar Platinum and no problem, same with CbB.  Also tried it with Goldwave (audio editor) playing a song and still no problem.
 
I am on Windows 10 (latest version).
 

It appears Internet Explorer playing youtube videos is the culprit. The other audio apps don't seem to affect CW and IE doesn't seem to affect them, only CW.
 
Once IE has commandeered the sound system, even closing IE will not restore CW to open. I have to reboot the system.
 
Is there a setting in IE to fix this?

What are you using for a recording interface unit? And what mode? ASIO or MME?
 

Behringer ASIO for DAWs and VSTi's. Onboard sound (default) for Media Player, IE, etc. This is why it make no sense.

I had a problem with a SoundBlaster sound card's ASIO interfering with Sonar.  But that was the only time and that was in early Windows 7 days.  I uninstalled the SoundBlaster and drivers and went back to using the on-board (Realtek) and no more problems.

That could be it fireberd. The system default is a Creative SB and I can only assume IE uses the default sound.
 
The odd thing is it only happens when (and after) playing youtube videos. Even when I disable playing sounds in Internet Options.

Along with my problem, I've seen others with SoundBlaster related recording problems.  If your motherboard has on-board sound, I would use that to see if the problem goes away (disable or even better remove the SoundBlaster card for testing).  
YouTube used to use Adobe Flash for playing videos and Flash has been known to cause problems.  YouTube is now using HTML5 (but I don't know if that is 100%).  Depending on your OS what browser you are using Flash or HTML5 could be the issue.