Either will do - really depends whether you want to save everything precautionarily (registry) or for copying user maintainable data to another location/manipulation safely (XML).

I am sorry, I guess I just don't understand. Maybe a small read-me file explaining what all the options do would be helpful.   I don't have enough background in how VSTs are stored in the registry or XMLs.  this is all greek to me

Sorry - I don't know what else to say beyond what I've said.

maybe you can tell us what the reg key saves vs what the xml saves and why you would use one over the other?   

I have already. There's nothing more to say about it.

all you wrote is:
 
You can edit the saved XML file in Notepad or similar to change names and re-import all changes in one go (quicker than doing it one by one).
 
Im not sure what the reg contains and what the xml contains and use case for both?
 
Listen, you owe me and the group - NOTHING.... Im just simply asking because I just dont understand.   Like what exactly do all the options do, and the use case for the reg and xml.
 
 

The first post on this page tells you what the use cases are:
 
"Either will do - really depends whether you want to save everything precautionarily (registry) or for copying user maintainable data to another location/manipulation safely (XML)."
 
The key words are "everything" and "user maintainable" (these are the fields you can edit in the Plugin Manager).
 
There's a revised version uploaded which should run a bit faster, requires fewer key presses to do the export/scan/import, and gives some extra feedback when loading so it doesn't look like it's doing nothing.

alewgro
all you wrote is:
 
You can edit the saved XML file in Notepad or similar to change names and re-import all changes in one go (quicker than doing it one by one).
 
Im not sure what the reg contains and what the xml contains and use case for both?
 
Listen, you owe me and the group - NOTHING.... Im just simply asking because I just dont understand.   Like what exactly do all the options do, and the use case for the reg and xml.
 
 

Explained in post #1

I've got an experimental version up at https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2gftkz2p8qcbcj/VST%20Settings%20Manager1_1%20.zip?dl=0
 
Changes:
1 - No external settings file - because of some other changes (for reliability and maintainability), I've made it internal and non-user-editable.  So the "default settings tick box" is removed.
 
2 - Right clicking on a plug-in name in the VST menus now allows immediate editing of the VST name.
 
3 - Left clicking on a plug-in name launches a version of the SONAR Plug-in Manager where you can edit the VST's settings (with save writing to the registry). I *think* I have the exclusivity logic correct (eg. you can't pick stereo and mono at the same time) but I'm not 100% sure; I also know that BitBridge and JBridge options are available for 64 bit plug-ins, not just 64 bit bridged ones.
 
4 - The exported XML formats between this and the previous version are not backwards compatible (but they are forwards compatible); the new format is smaller (partially due to 1 and partially due to redundancy I'd noticed).
 
5 - An option to hide excluded VSTs from the menus (defaults to hide).
 
Next features to add (partially done):
 
- Fixing the bits of (3) mentioned above
- Adding a few more bits of info on the pop-up editor
- Comparison with the list VSTs installed the last time the utility was run (aha...it'll show newly installed plug-ins :-))

Elffin
@Mudgel ..... does audacity work as linked wave editor for Sonar?

I've done some testing and v2.05 can be added successfully.
Iv'e tried with newer versions but they haven't worked. More testing to do on that end but 2.05 works perfect.

If you need some help setting it up just send me a PM with the fully path to your Audacity.exe file and I'll send you back a registry file that you just need to double click to run and that's it.