I built a really nice Windows 7 computer two weeks ago (Intel i7, 32 GB RAM, Asus Z97-A motherboard). I had the usual trouble getting various music programs installed and working correctly, but I'd gotten everything straightened out until this morning when I realized I hadn't installed a number of the SONAR Platinum features. So I installed Classic Creative FX Suite, Engineering FX Suite, Studio Instruments Suite, Artist Instrument Collection, Platinum Instrument Collection, Studio Mixing FX Suite, Boutique FX Suite, Cakewalk Sound Center, Anderton Collection, Boz Digital Labs ProChannel Collection, NYC Showroom Impulses, and Cakewalk Drum Replacer. Now, vstscan.exe won't complete. It crashes after scanning for a minute or two. I upgraded to the latest SONAR version Everett a little while ago, but vstscan.exe is still v. 5.0.8.0 (it wasn't updated by Everett). I started trying to rename the DLL files that were causing the crash, but each time I renamed one, vstscan.exe would crash on a different one. A sample of some of the things causing the crash:
 
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins\Tube Leveler\TL64_TubeLeveler_64.DLL
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins\z3ta+_fx2.dll
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Vst2\Celemony\melodynemelodyne.dll
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments\Kontakt 4\KConvert64.dll
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments\Helper\REX Shared Library 64.dll
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments\Kontakt 4\kconvert64.dll
 
Here's a sample of a crash:
 
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: VstScan.exe
Application Version: 5.0.8.0
Application Timestamp: 5571f8b2
Fault Module Name: TH2 Producer-64.dll
Fault Module Version: 2.2.18.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 5432951e
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000000000000765b
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 7152
Additional Information 2: 7152a75cf776dd4b9ff30c66a107ae4b
Additional Information 3: 9e1b
Additional Information 4: 9e1bcc614f59f431d40f7a50adf4f0c9
 
I'm fortunate to have some computer skills, but I'd really like to get back to making music. Renaming the DLL files obviously wasn't the solution. Any suggestions??
 
Thanks!

Disable your antivirus.
Try running Sonar as Administrator.

eubieQ
I upgraded to the latest SONAR version Everett a little while ago, but vstscan.exe is still v. 5.0.8.0 (it wasn't updated by Everett). 

The latest version of VstScan is indeed 5.0.8.0. The version in Dorchester was 5.0.7.1
Most likely its one of your plugin's corrupting the state of VSTScan and causing the crash. The only way to troubleshoot that is by a process of elimination unfortunately. There are some notes here to run VSTScan diagnostics and capture a log that might help troubleshoot it. Its at the end of the article.

Thanks for the tips! I'll try them and let you know. (I don't have antivirus software on my music computer and have tried running as Admin, though.)

I created a new Windows user account, Admin, turned off UAC, logged into the computer with it, started SONAR, and vstscan.exe ran fine. Hmmm. I can continue to use the new account, but I may try your suggestion for deleting the VST inventory through the Registry for my original account and see if SONAR will rebuild the list without error. Thanks again for the help.

Make sure you don't forget to turn UAC back on once resolved.
Cheers...