How to quick start sub-theming in Adaptive Theme? I have a question. I'm a little confused on if I should copy the entire contents of the "adaptivetheme" folder to create a sub-theme, or if only the "at_subtheme" folder should be copied.

I'm following the instructions from the project at https://drupal.org/project/adaptivetheme, which says that you need to update the theme-setting.php and template.php files, replacing "adaptivetheme_subtheme" with your new subtheme name. However, within the contents of the instructions it states to only copy the new "at_subtheme" folder, not the entire "adaptivetheme" folder, and I do not see a theme-setting.php and template.php file in the new "at_subtheme" folder. I only see theme-setting.php and template.php in the original "adaptivetheme" folder within "at_core".

Should I copy the entire original "adaptivetheme" folder?

I'm using Drupal 7.26
No, you should copy only the sub theme folder. I have just downloaded all versions of AT and both theme-settings.php and template.php files are there. You may consider deleting the existing adaptivetheme folder and downloading it again.