one thing i've noticed since i upgraded to X3 is that everytime the VST scanner runs, i am told that i need to locate the Alchemy Player data folder, which i never had to do with X2.  it's kind of a pain.  anyone else seeing this?

yes; same here.
but I had the same problem in X2;  and not X1.
 
Alchemy tech support had me try a few things  (delete the program and reinstall) but to no avail.
It's a pain in the butt but pointing the popup to the correct folder is now part of my normal startup.
 
Love Alchemy too much not to use it.

bummer.  thanks for the reply tom1.

I know it's no help, but I just installed Alchemy player in X3 this morning without any problems. If a reinstall doesn't help there's possible a registry setting not getting cleaned. Hope you guys get it worked out.

i will make sure to uninstall/registry clean/reinstall this evening. thanks

This could be an admin right issue. Try running X3 once in admin mode. I noticed this with other apps and running them in admin mode resolved the issue. The reason it wasn't able to to save the conf/option to a file or registry whichever it was using. 

satya nailed it.  The moment I ran as admin this and several other plugins that failed to scan popped up

cool. thanks guys!

I have Alchemy (full version). The Alchemy database needs to be in a read/write location for the current user.
There are instructions around for making links to alternate locations if you dig around.
 

dubdisciple
satya nailed it.  The moment I ran as admin this and several other plugins that failed to scan popped up

Please report this to the vendor. Their code is not Windows UAC (User account control) compliant. If its trying to write to the program folder Windows will not allow it as a standard user and that's why the settings are not saved.