VST issue in Sonar X2

[E-money]

I'm not sure if this forum supports older Sonar versions, but I'll throw it out there.  I'm upgrading my laptop and migrating my Sonar X2 from my old Windows 7 to a new Windows 10 environment.  I've installed Sonar X2 32 bit version onto the Windows 10 laptop and copied my 100+ VST .dll files onto the new laptop.  Sonar doesn't find the bulk of these VSTs when I use the Cakewalk Plugin Manager utility.  I've moved the .dll files to the default VST folder but it's still not working.  I seem to remember this being a straightforward process last time I did this, but that was years ago.  Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks.

[scook]

Not all plug-ins may be copied into the scan path. Some must be installed in order to populate the required registry entries. Generally if a plug-in has an installer, use the installer instead of copying the files.

In the case of older32bit plug-ins, they may need the SONAR to run as administrator in order to scan and load properly.

Even when running as administrator, plug-ins may hang or crash the scanner. If this is the case, it may take some sleuthing to figure out which plug-ins are at fault. Adding plug-ins into the scan path a few at a time may help.

Finally, upgrading everything except the DAW and its plug-ins is a recipe for pain. Windows does a decent job of backward compatibility but there are limits.

[abacab]

If your Windows is 64-bit, then I would install the 64-bit version of Sonar. That will still scan and use your 32-bit plugins, but you will also be able to run 64-bit plugins as well.

Agree with using the plugin installers, if the plugin came with one. Some plugins require more than just the .dll to work. For example, some plugin installers may also create folders in some or all of the following: Program Files, Program Data, Documents,  entries in the Windows registry, etc. Not running the setup for them is a recipe for troubles.

Then once you have Sonar X2 setup and running, you could install the free Cakewalk by BandLab side by side and it will be able to use your X2 (and other) plugins. Cakewalk offers the very latest version of the DAW, which is  a currently updated version (May 2019) of  Sonar Platinum (last updated Oct 2017), minus some 3rd party content. But you don't really need those missing extras since you will be bringing your own, and you get an up to date core DAW!

[scook]

The latest scanner is much improved over the X2 scanner too. In addition to bug fixes, the sandbox and log features can help with problem plug-ins. Unfortunately for the OP, it won't directly help with 32bit X2 (there is no 32bit version of the latest scanner or DAW) but might help get the 32bit VSTs that lack 64bit versions running in 64bit X2 and CbB,