1) How you disabled default.hewsp?
by renaming it to "--default.hewsp
2) How HE says "it would use an default.hewsp ??!?"
in menu "File > Workspace" was still some "default.hewsp" shown in grey on first place (i take no care if there where an path too)
3) How to reproduce
a. close HE (sorry)
b. rename default.hewsp to ----default.hewsp
c. start HE
d. take a look in "File > Workspace"
e. take a look on the root of the drive where the HE-folder is located ... there is now an new folder "Workspaces" with an fresh "default.hewsp"
The fault is for me that HE create an new folder where no one told him to do.
Instead using the info from <Workspace path=".\\workspaces\\default.hewsp"/> to create THERE an new hewsp file, if that one is missed.
Just tell me if i should do more investigations .... ;-)