Hello.  I installed X3 Producer this weekend and many of my VSTs were missing.  So I searched my system and discovered that in my years of installing VSTs and just hitting "OK" a lot, my VSTs are, frankly, all over the place.  Some are in Program Files under the plug-in name (both 64-bit and x86).  Some are in Program Files/Cakewalk/VSTs, and so on.  I had X3 scan my Program Files, hoping it would magically find everything, and it ended scanning Adobe Creative Suite stuff, etc., that bogged me down w/ error messages.
 
So I'm thinking I need to get my VST world in order.  What's the most efficient way to tackle this? 
 
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.  I appreciate everyone's time.

Sorry I don't have any insight into this, but I'd like to make a suggestion...
 
Do a search on your C: drive for 'vst,' make note of all the locations and then make sure Sonar has them all listed under Preferences.
As for organization, the best I've been able to come up with (X3c):

• RMB-click any FX bin,
• select Audio FX > Plugin Layouts,
• select X3 Producer Effects.

I don't remember if I also had to select "Sort VST3 Plugins by Category" or not, but they are now sorted that way. At least now I know what each thing is and I'm able to find things a lot easier.
 
Maybe not an answer to cleaning them up on the drive, but at least they'll be cleaned up in Sonar. Hope this helps.

Spam reported

Thanks, Ron!

you are looking to physically organize the files or just have sonar find them?
 
if it's the latter i would think you are going to want to search your HD for .dll files and make sure sonar is looking in all of those places
from there you can organize your plugin layout so that visually in sonar things look good
 
if you want to physically move then you can do that with some but others you may need to uninstall/reinstall

Whoo.you responded to a thread you started in November 2013?? This just might be a new record . 

looks like it was spam that originally bumped the thread
 
never too late for thanks! :)

seed
looks like it was spam that originally bumped the thread
 
never too late for thanks! :)

You bet.  I'm sorry - my father passed away last fall, and I've been a bit fragmented.  I'm also not a full-time musician, so my Sonar Life is full of stops and starts - including trips to this forum.  I apologize for giving the appearance of spam.  I genuinely appreciate everyone's help.