In a thread with Scook, he told me how I could roll back to a previous version of CbB very quickly. Before installing a new version make a copy of C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core and rename it Cakewalk Core 2018 04. Make sure it's in this folder C:\Program Files\Cakewalk



 Now when you install the new version it will install in this folder C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core. Select Cakewalk.exe in the Cakewalk Core 2018 04 folder and right click drag to the desktop and rename the icon Cakewalk 2018 04. So now you can choose to launch either 2018.07 or 2018 04 by double clicking on either desktop icon.
 


This is very useful info, especially for someone like me, who's running a recording studio. If I install a new version and then have a client come in and find something is not working right, due to a bug or incompatibility, then I can really quickly launch the previous version that I've lived with a while and know what bugs to expect.

So you can have as many different versions as you like at your fingertips. The folders are small 153 meg. I leave Win updates disabled until right before installing a new CbB version, the I update, so it's possible a bug may be caused by a Win update also. This method makes it easy to determine where the bug is coming from. I also have saved Acronis image files of every CbB version in case a bug is caused by a Win update.
 
With this new method I don't need to be leery any more of a new version or worried about being caught flatfooted with the unpredictability of a new version. I also have many versions of Sonar - X1, X3, 8.5 and 32 bit Splat. This covers a lot of bases for old files and problems that can come up.

Full disclosure -  I use this to have multiple versions online but everyone should know all versions (with same bitness) use the SAME "Shared Folders." This means if there is a problem with "Shared Utilities" it may be necessary to restore/reinstall to handle the problem. For example there was a backward compatibility problem with custom layouts from March 2017 through May 2018. I did not use custom layout prior to March 2017 so the problem did not affect me. There was a registry hack to workaround the issue but it was not well known.

scook
Full disclosure -  I use this to have multiple versions online but everyone should know all versions (with same bitness) use the SAME "Shared Folders." This means if there is a problem with "Shared Utilities" it may be necessary to restore/reinstall to handle the problem. For example there was a backward compatibility problem with custom layouts from March 2017 through May 2018. I did not use custom layout prior to March 2017 so the problem did not affect me. There was a registry hack to workaround the issue but it was not well known.

Can you explain what a custom layout is?

Custom plug-in layouts are created using the Plug-in Manager. They allow the user to build custom lists of plug-ins used anywhere the DAW shows plug-in lists. I started using them when the new plug-in layout system was created  because -
1) The new default layouts did not preserve the old default layout VST3 sort by category/VST2+DX sort by manufacturer. I spent a lot of time creating folders at the OS level to support the "Default - All Plug-ins" layout that SONAR used for years and the new system force a choice between sort all by category or sort all by manufacturer.
2) The new layouts did not support nested folders.
 
I was hesitant to use custom layouts because of issues from earlier versions. Fortunately, by 2017 custom layouts seemed to work OK as long as one did not need them for earlier versions of SONAR.
 

scook
Full disclosure -  I use this to have multiple versions online but everyone should know all versions (with same bitness) use the SAME "Shared Folders." This means if there is a problem with "Shared Utilities" it may be necessary to restore/reinstall to handle the problem. For example there was a backward compatibility problem with custom layouts from March 2017 through May 2018. I did not use custom layout prior to March 2017 so the problem did not affect me. There was a registry hack to workaround the issue but it was not well known.

 
I've used my own custom menu in Plugin Manager I think as long as it's been around. I was looking at my old files and they go back to 2010. I have a custom menu for audio FX and Synth Rack. I've never used the default layouts. If I recall I redid my layouts when I started using Splat. In fact every time I made big changes in my layouts, like Win 7 to Win 10, etc I saved a new layout. So old versions of Sonar tend to use old layouts.
 
I haven't gotten any new plugins for a very long time, only the ones that came with new versions of Splat, of which I've gotten them all. The ones I bought are mostly synth rack soft synths, some old Wave FX plugins. I've made very little changes to the layouts over the years.
 
 These menus have worked fine for me. Sometimes I need to open a 32 bit Splat and it has the plugin layouts also. Does it sound like I may have the backward compatibility problem you mentioned? If so what are the symptoms?