VST plugin locations in Cubase 9.5 vs. earlier gen's

Hello,

the plugin locations on Windows didn’t change over time, they are as follows:

C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3
C:/Program Files/Steinberg/VSTPlugins
C:/Program Files/VSTPlugins
C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST2 (this folder is scanned by default, but not created by the program installer, it’s the users’ choice to use it or not)
C:/Program Files/Common Files/Steinberg/VST2 (here you find some shared stuff, I only have the legacy HALion ONE here)

The 32-bit plugins’ path are identical, just replace C:/Program Files with C:/Program Files (x86).

For VST3, there is only one install path: C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3 - this is forced in the VST3 SDK specifications and cannot be changed, one cannot really go wrong here :slight_smile:
For VST2, Cubase cannot dictate the install path of the plugin, it’s the plugin vendor’s choice, where an installer is provided (simple dlls can be dropped by the user anywhere, of course).

Friendly advice: older Cubase versions will almost certainly misbehave on Win 10, the audio and MIDI system changed quite a bit.
If you need to access older 32-bit plug-ins, I’d rather recommend to install 8.5 x86.

As for the presets, the link provided by MarQs is complete.