Plugin (and other) preset location

[Jan Deeben]

I'm planning on upgrading my pc, or actually perform a clean Windows 11 install. Afterwards I'll install CbB and only the plugins I actually do use (after 5 years, my system is a bit polluted with stuff I downloaded & looked at once, but never used seriously).

1. Now, my question is: I found a folder containing the preset files for many of my plugins, but they're named as some unique IDs. For example:
C:\Users\Jan\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Shared Presets\{5653546E-6375-7474-616C-2D6E6F697365} has some preset files, but how can I figure out for which plugin they are used? Where can I find a file / table which says {5653546E-6375-7474-616C-2D6E6F697365} = "this & that" plugin?

If I knew the above, it would also greatly help me to transfer some of my presets from a demo / trial plugin to a purchased version...

2. Are the settings for the standard Cakewalk plugins (I love to use some of them too) also stored in the same folder, or somewhere else?

Hope one of you can help me with this, 'coz it'll be time consuming enough already to A. upgrade my pc to something Windows11 compatible, B. install the OS and drivers, and C. get CbB running and able to handle all my (previous) projects (if possible).

Best regards,

Jan

 

[John Vere]

So I can’t help with you question but I can offer a suggestion. I just built a new PC last November. It is a lot of work getting stuff back the way it was. 
But what worked for retrieving pre sets was if you open a project saved in the old PC all the plug ins will be using your prior pre sets. Just re save them. 

Example was I was worried about Addictive Drums. I mostly use this one pre set that was 4 year in the making. I opened a typical project and of course AD was the way I wanted it. So I saved that as a pre set and now I’m good to go on new machine.

I also did this for a few other important presets on other instruments. 

I was originally going to ask a similar question but after I did this it is all working perfectly as well as it  cleared  out pre sets I no longer used anymore. 
It is nice to start fresh it’s worth the effort. I have all the installers for all those freebies so if I need one down the road I’ll install it. I think I went from  200 plug ins scanned to 30. 
 

Edited March 1 by John Vere

[Glenn Stanton]

pretty much John has the best way. 

the presets file content is binary and even if you check in the registry (under the intuitive names of ActiveMovie -> Presets, many of them have content where the name is missing (although a bunch of the commercial ones do have the names), so you'd have to guess at the list of content to determine if it's a plugin you want to keep the preset for.

in this example, i knows its for my Channel Tools plugin as i use custom settings for set the width on stereo instruments.

another option is to copy them all over - they're associated in the registry (under the vst listing) so they'll only be used by those programs anyways.

 

Edited March 1 by Glenn Stanton

[Jan Deeben]

Thank you people! You both helped me with your suggestions.

@John I indeed recall opening a project and finding out that the project includes the settings of any used plugins. Saving them again as a preset would be a solution.

@Glenn thank you for including the screenshots of the registry in your reply. I'll investigate more closely and probably export HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\ActiveMovie to be able to import it on my newly installed system. Same for contents of the folder C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Shared Presets\ , I'm aware of the fact that the CLSIDs (the long alphanumeric 'names') might not be the same on my new system.

I'm thinking of another way to identify my plugins: I'll just add a preset for each frequently used plugin, e.g. __TALReverb__, so I can identify which file / registry branch corresponds with the plugin's settings. 

Edited March 10 by Jan Deeben

[Jan Deeben]

Small update:

I noticed that VSTi's store their presets in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\ActiveMovie, BUT some make a reference there to a config file (with additional info?) in user directory C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Shared Presets\

So to make a proper backup of a plugin's presets, one might need both the corresponding registry branch and presets file (if applicable)...