Hey folks.   Pulling my hair out on this one.   Windows 10 and my M Audio have not been neighbourly and i was going to wipe the laptop and put it back to Win7.  
    But.... i got an employee discount on a laptop in my job and have decide to put win7 and sonar on that and nothing else.  It will be my recording laptop.          I have installed X3 about three times now using both standard install and custom install and am still getting the same problem.      Here is the problem.      
I have transferred my songs from the old to the new laptop and a load of plug ins are missing.  Quite a few were third party so Im not surprised there and can install these manually.      But X3 is missing a load of Cakewalk reverbs and EQ etc.     I copied the VST folder from the old laptop and I'm still missing plug ins.
These missing plug ins all seem to be in the Direct X section of plug in manager.
So.... I made a note of some of the missing plug ins and went back to the old laptop and discovered the VST guys do not only reside in c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins    but there is also
c:\program files\cakewalk\Shared plugins     On the old laptop this folder has about 46 items.  The installation on the new laptop only has twenty something.    Anyone know why X3 is installing on the new laptop and leaving out half of this folder? Considering these are Cakewalk plug ins and not third party you would think they would all install.   I can simply copy the folder over but if i didnt my old laptop to compare with I'd never have known how to find the missing plug ins.      Thanks guys. 

Cakewalk does not install VST plug-ins in any of the "Shared" folders. By default Cakewalk puts all VST2 plug-ins in the VSTPlugins folder. The full path depends on whether 32bit or 64bit SONAR is installed and if both are installed, the order of matters (install 32bit first). You should not install 3rd party VST plug-ins to the "Shared" folders. These folders should never be added to the scan path, they can mess up the VST scanner.
 
There are quite a few DX plug-ins which were never ported to 64bit. If the new install is 64bit and the old install is 32bit, this would explain why some DX plug-ins are missing.

Scook you're a darn genius.   You hit the nail on the head.   The new laptop has windows 64bit.  I'll wipe it and get 32 bit installed.   The old laptop has 32 bit so you nailed the problem.  Well done.
I have some plug ins that are vst3.    Could I make a folder called VST3 on the C drive and add that to the scan path?   I'm not sure what the diff is between a vst2 and a vst3.   I wasn't aware that the wrong path could affect the scan engine.   Good to know.
Thanks for the help Scook....fantastic tips there.  

The 32bit version of X3 will run on 64bit Windows. Both 32 and 64bit X3 may be installed on the same machine. Eventually you may want to transition to 64bit SONAR.
 
Unlike VST2, The VST3 spec has a recommended install path. Most plug-in manufacturers do not give the user a choice where to install VST3 binaries, instead they place the plug-ins in the recommended path. This path is automatically added to X3. The 64bit bit path is "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3." The 32bit path is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3."

Thanks Steve.  

scook
Cakewalk does not install VST plug-ins in any of the "Shared" folders. By default Cakewalk puts all VST2 plug-ins in the VSTPlugins folder. The full path depends on whether 32bit or 64bit SONAR is installed and if both are installed, the order of matters (install 32bit first). You should not install 3rd party VST plug-ins to the "Shared" folders. These folders should never be added to the scan path, they can mess up the VST scanner.
 
There are quite a few DX plug-ins which were never ported to 64bit. If the new install is 64bit and the old install is 32bit, this would explain why some DX plug-ins are missing.

This is an amazing amount of critical information compressed into a single post. Is there somewhere other than scook's all too mortal brain, and this difficult to search forum where the same information can be easily accessed? Something like, say a knowledgebase article on how to install both 32 & 64 bit versions?