Hey folks, had to set up a new rig recently, entertained the notion of installing just CbB and going from there and got about half a project in before realizing that I'd still need an SPLAT installation (or, well, Cakewalk Command Center) to get everything back from Bifilter to Channel Tools. hence I've got Command Center up and running to install all the FX suites (and by inclusion, SPLAT) again.
 
I know this completely isn't Bandlab's territory anymore and there's been quite some progress migrating plugin bundling in SOME cases, but I'd still need the rest of it for recalling old projects and because some of these have been so integral to the workflow. 
 
For now, getting all the FX suites via Command Center, but I'm wondering if that's going to be a problem in future, despite Gibson's final statement of keeping those servers up and running (mainly because anything can happen to Gibson)
 
Should I be backing up the VST/plugin directory? Would that cause issues dragging and dropping to a new installation? Is it a ticking time bomb anyway because of authentication in the case of some plugins?

Drag & Drop won't work, you need to run the original installers
 
As to what you want, it depends on how far back you want to go
 
For example, if you want the Pantheon Reverb, you have to go back to 8.5 (which means you need 8.0 installed)
V-Vocal would be X2
Bit Meter is X2
 

And so on
 

Actually, that's a very good point; I've been assuming I'd need to run Cakewalk Command Center to grab SPLAT, etc. but keeping a backup of the actual installers (assuming these exist) would be a healthy middle ground. Been conditioned by a decade of Steam gaming to not worry about installers ;)
 
I think SPLAT is basically where I'd draw the line for backwards-compatibility opening older projects. If for whatever reason we need to go beyond that, I'll just find replacements assuming we didn't stem those projects.

I could have moved the Splat installers, but I found it easier to just let Command Center handle it.
You still have to connect to get Splat authorized.
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