At the beginning, I found that although I am set from the start as the Administrator, the actual base level for any changes was actually not given to the Administrator at all - but to 'System'.

I have found a few strange things since using Win7 Ultimate for quite some time now. If you can find the file then you can make a copy of it and put it back after it disappears – at least this would give you a temporary fix until Epson put out a new driver, which could be a long time. You may want to try and find where the settings are saved. It does sound like a driver (or printer related software) problem. I have a ticket with Epson Support just to see what they have to say. My same custom settings with my Epson R2880 never disappear, so it's most likely a R3000 driver issue. I now export those settings files so re-entering them is quick, but it would be nice if they stay there. They show up in the Select List for a few days, if not longer, and then just disappear, happened 4-5 times for me and I need to re-enter them. The defaults say in place, it where you generate custom settings and save them to the 'Selelct List'. Any settings done when using the printer are temporary - often stay related to a specific document but not for other work.

Not sure if this helps Bob but to set preferences yourself to stay as the default, you have to do that via the Printer Preferences after opening in Control Panel.

Epson scanner software disappears