How do I delete extraneous plugins SOLVED

[Billy86]

So... after a number of years of acquiring plugins, I've found that I have a "go-to" list that covers everything I need/use. My New Year's resolution is to eliminate the clutter, which there seems A LOT of at this point of gathering through the years. What is the best way to delete plugins I no longer want/need -- both the declutter pop-up lists when searching/inserting, and freeing up drive space. Thanks, and Happy Holidays everyone!

Billy

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Billy86

[rsinger]

The place to start is windows -> start -> settings -> apps & features. Select the plugin and uninstall. If there are still more then windows -> start and look through the list of apps for the developer's name or plugin name and see if there is an uninstall there. After that it's more troublesome.

[Jeremy Murray-Wakefield]

- and for those you're not sure you want to completely delete, you can just exclude them with the plug-in manager in the main menu "Utilities".

[ChristopherM]

So that the "unwanted" plugs are excluded from scans (and hence do not delay matters if they have any issues, say) I move their DLL into a folder that is not in the scan list. This means that if I ever want them back permanently or temporarily, it is easy to drag'n'drop them back again. Whether this is better or worse than using the Exclude feature of PiM, I do not know.

[Jeremy Murray-Wakefield]

54 minutes ago, ChristopherM said:

I move their DLL into a folder that is not in the scan list. 

Similarly, if I'm on a big purge (not so much these days) I rename VstPlugins to VstPlugins.old and then create a new VstPlugins folder to drag in the ones I like. It's also a good debugging technique if you've got a project that keeps crashing whilst loading.

[Billy86]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the replies. There are some great suggestions. I like the idea of essentially setting aside DLLs if that will remove them from the scan path (and thus the display of plugins), and then have the option of adding them back later if I want. Thanks again!