Robert Keefe

Right click Cakewalk icon choose Run As Administrator

I too  am a guitar player, bass player, singer,  started out on a  Win 3.11 pc running cakewalk for DOS, I was using cubase(xp version) but my pro sound card died a few years ago, been using Cakewalk by Bandlab a 2 or 3  weeks now I was able to export the midi's from cubase and import them and the audio i recorded in cubase into cakewalk with out too much trouble

right click the small track instrument icon and choose Replace Synth

Preferances > VST Settings > VST Scan Paths

you need to add the full path to the installed VST plug-in, in this section so cakewalk can find it