John
He should have little trouble at this point. It seems that CW has crossed the Rubicon and it looks good. Plus it can only get better.  

Thanks, John

Anderton
Oh and by the way, for the benefit of the op...
 
Problem reporter works with Firefox. I just checked it out.
You can submit an email from the Cakewalk web site.

Even if your product is unsupported?

X3 is out of support and not listed in the product drop down on the problem report form.

telecharge

Anderton
Oh and by the way, for the benefit of the op...
 
Problem reporter works with Firefox. I just checked it out.
You can submit an email from the Cakewalk web site.

Even if your product is unsupported?

I didn't want people to read his post and think he was speaking globally about not being able to use Firefox or submit an email from the site. It seemed he was extrapolating his specific circumstance more generally.

Anderton
I didn't want people to read his post and think he was speaking globally about not being able to use Firefox or submit an email from the site. It seemed he was extrapolating his specific circumstance more generally.

OK. I don't know if the OP thinks the form is broken because his product is not listed. I can see how that might be confusing to customers. There's nothing that I've seen that jumps out at you to tell you that X3 is no longer supported. I'm sure Cakewalk sent out the appropriate notices and all, but still...

Well, first of all thanks for the great response. Secondly I thought Sonar (e.g. 8.5.3) and not Pro Audio. You're right Pro Audio is definitely gone 
 
Maybe I was a little bit to strict and brundlefly was somehow right by assuming that "...It sounds like most of what's bothering you are just differences between X3 and earlier versions."
 
Yes, that's right it, bothers me like hell, that the work flow I developed over several years, suddenly doesn't work any more. I write a lot of orchestral music and for keeping the creative process going on it's crucial to have a fast work flow.
 
And maybe 'buggy' is not the right expression, you're right. Probably 'untidy' fits better. I cannot understand why 'control of clip background colors' was eliminated in X3 and all the rest was kept. The documentation says, that there should be a setting for 'control of clip background colors'!
 
So that's the reason why I wanted to contact Cakewalk. Just to find out if this is a bug or if something went wrong during the installation or if there is a way to modify a .clr-file or to modify the registry to fix my problem?
 
Let me state some more examples related to 'untidy':

• Am I wrong, but in the console view of X3 there is no way any more to move strips (unless one does it in the track view and synchronises them)? (In Sonar 8.5.3 it was easy)?
• Furthermore, why doesn't X3 detect some of the older cakewalk plug-ins? I know, there are new ones which are much better. Nevertheless in the sense of continuity, it would be great to be backward compatible. After all, these are cakewalk proprietary items and I invested a lot of time into those projects and I'd like to keep on working on them. By the way Sonar 8.5.3 - I installed on the same system - detects them

Just to make it clear, I'm using Sonar for musically and technically complex projects. I create these compositions in Sonar and do a lot of midi editing, as well as audio recording and mixing. Having often many signature and tempo changes in my projects. Therefore I need a lubricated work flow, which I achieved with many of the older Sonar versions. And definitely, I don't want to restart to develop a work flow when a new Sonar version appears. I think continuity is important....
 
However, for those who asked about my system, the key figures are Win 7 64bit, Lynx L22. The system is very stable. 

telecharge
There's nothing that I've seen that jumps out at you to tell you that X3 is no longer supported. I'm sure Cakewalk sent out the appropriate notices and all, but still...

Check out the Support column in https://www.cakewalk.com/My-Account/Products
It provides links for the support available by product.

As for the change in the work flow.  The change from 8.5 to X1 was 5 years ago.
 
The basic workflow from 5 years ago until now has not changed.  the "X" workflow with the Skylight interface should stay as a basic system for the near future as it was the basis of the rolling update platform. 
 
I'd advise either getting on board or stay stuck in the past. 
 
I went straight from the 8.5 to X3 and while I experienced time needed for the learning curve of the new, no way I would want to go back to the 8.5 system.  Though I don't spend nearly as much time with MIDI as you do, more of my time is spent with recorded instruments. 

@giorgio...
 
To move strips in Console View hold the Alt key and click drag them left/right (you may have to hunt around for draggable spot on the strip).
 
All plugins installed on your system should show up. Yes they have removed some plugins but if you already had them installed from a previous version you can use them. If they are not showing up then you may need to run a VST scan and/or reinstall the plugs (if you did a clean install of the newer version). You can reinstall old plugins without installing the old Sonar versions by doing an Advanced install and select the items you want included.

Sometime progress and continuity are not fully compatible. Most of what's changed is ultimately pretty superficial (different keyboard shortcuts, menu stuctures, tools and modifier keys, etc.), but these changes will definitely slow you down for a while, especially changes to MIDI editing.
 
Most of us went through through the shock with the jump from 8.5 to X1, and the evolution from that point on has been relatively painless, though the Bakers continue to change default keybindings and tools/modifiers/gestures periodically - often without clearly explaining the reasons.
 
Ctrl+Alt+Drag to move channel strips in the Console View.
 
Make sure all paths containing plugins are listed under Options in Plugin Manager and Re-scan. If that doesn't get it, I suggest you start a separate thread about specific plugins that are not being found. Or Google some keywords against site:forum.cakewalk.com to find previous threads that might have answers.