The app found all the items in my plugs folders: dxi, vst, vsti, vst3,...
 
 

I've got around 90 plugins and every one I remove gives me just as much excitement as when I origonally bought them. My ambition is to just run on just one plugin one day ;)

It takes a lot to get me to buy new software nowadays, the last plugin I bought was melodyne. I find most plugins far too similar for my liking. I also found the more plugins you get, the more you fiddle with them and that means less time making music. I prefer concentrating on a select few plugins and therefore get to know them really well. When I know them inside out I will move to the next batch... Slowly slowly is the key.

Before I was in the mentality of just collecting plugins for the presets, that gets very expensive and hit and very hit and miss imho. You end up with a lot of duplication.

Hi bitflipper,
 
I'd love to try your inventory app (via either dropbox or email)! I'd be happy to pay a few $$ too if you release it.
 
I've just reinstalled my ageing XP partition at the same time as setting up Win 7 on a new one...your app seems like it might save me a huge amount of time sorting through both lots of plugin folders.
 
Regards,
Alex.

Hashbrown: CakeAlex
Will you share your list of plugs?

This thread, and about two weeks of bronchitis, instigated a period of cleansing.
 
In an earlier post I suggested using the DIR command to list the plugs in the plugs' folders.
 
Much to my chagrin and annoyance I found a billion samples as well as the related plugs, in the default Sonar folders.
 
I ALWAYS attempt to install samples in the USER DEFINED samples folder.  Unfortunately too many of the programmer managers ASSUME putting everything in buried and hidden folders is good for everybody. (AD would not install quickly because I do not use the default plug paths. I use a folder on the C: drive.)
 
(Nothing a user needs access to, and/or can save, should be placed in a buried/hidden folder that is not a default for every average backup program. Programs, program data, and roaming folders should never be used for user presets, progs, samples,.... If I cannot easily drag and drop to a backup device it should not be placed there.........)
 
So, anyway, back at the ranch, I proceeded to spend way too much time reviewing all the plugs and deleted lots. Fur shure stuff installed with Sonar that I will never use.
 
Example of other bits: Once upon a time far, far ago, I journeyed to find an easy to use ping-pong echo plug. Got a bunch, but did not rid myself of the pile of accumulated debris
.
And sometimes the one item I wanted required getting the bundle.
 
Lots of stuff has left the building.
 
And then I reviewed, and consolidated, all the temporary backups created during installations, all audio docs, tutorials, videos, templates, presets,....
 
I figger I deleted at least 200 gigabytes of stuff. Got rid of all the redundant copies of Cakewalk Content, expanded installation files, versions of DP, Rapture,....
 
I now have many fewer folders for all the stuff. And one external backup.
 
Much easier to find stuff now.
 
 
==================
Bugs, comments & suggestions:
 
We expect this application to not always perform as described.    This is by design.
 
Our software code is free of mistakes and errors. Yet it does contain undefined behaviors, and undocumented results.
 
Enjoy the process of discovery.
 
Please inform us of any unique functions you encounter that we may include them in the list of known features.
 

Hmmm as far as samples are concerned when it comes to wrong folders I've never had any probems except two bugbears:

Rapture and Dimension Pro are a pain on the ass when moving folders around. Some bad programming here for sure.

NI products put presets and samples etc everywhere and the install routine won't allow customization. It takes forever to move them manually but is possible.

I have uploaded my VST inventory tool to dropbox, so anyone who's interested can grab it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zmzbgxhbjyvbfc/VSTInventory105.zip?dl=0
 
There is no installation or setup required, just unzip the exe and run it. You do, however, have to have Excel installed on your machine. I plan to make a text-out version when I have time, so that Excel will not be a mandatory prerequisite.
 
It's a 32-bit application so it should run on any version of Windows. I've run it on XP 32, Win 7 32 and Win 8.1 64. Others have successfully tested it on Win 7 64. It should be compatible with Vista.
 
No guarantees that it won't blow up on ya (not much error handling or bullet-proofing in there yet), but it can't do any harm if it does. Worst-case failure mode would be dying while creating the spreadsheet, in which case you could have an orphaned instance of excel.exe floating in application purgatory. If that happens, just go to Task Manager and kill any instances of excel.exe you see listed there.
 
Known limitations:

• Excel is required
• Works only with SONAR Producer Edition (32- or 64-bit)

 
Both of these shortcomings will be addressed the first day in January that I don't have a zillion other things to do, or if I'm killing time in some airport departure lounge.
 
Let me know if there's any additional information you'd like to see added to the spreadsheet (e.g. file datestamps, DLL header fields such as modified-date, language or copyright notices, CLSIDs, whether it's a SynthEdit creation).
 
Also let me know if you see any blank fields such as missing vendor names or file versions. There are DLLs in the registry that aren't VSTs, such as runtime libraries for plugins (e.g. iZone4.dll) that the program has to remove from the report, and I only know about the ones I happen to have.
 
Next up: revisit my project scanner program that I'd put on hold because it was just too damn slow. That one lists all your projects and enumerates which plugins were used in each. But it's a chore pulling that information out because the SONAR project file format has never been documented, necessitating a brute-force text search.

Wow Bit...thanks for sharing this! I have one computer with excel on it but it isn't my DAW. Can I still use this if I put them on a memory stick and transport to my DAW which doesn't have Excel?

Thank you soooo much Bit! This was exactly what I was looking. You are so da man! Thanks for all your help.
Tommy

Seems like everything is there for me except one PSP plug does not list the vendor name. PSP N2O.dll.