VST 3.x Plug-In Scanner Master has stopped working

[denizen]

Hi,
Has anyone had the error message above on Win 10 when opening Cubase Pro 9.5?

16 GB Ram
1TB hard disk with 138 GB free
For plugins I run -
- NI Komplete 10
- Various Waves, Plugin Alliance, Izotope, Soundtoys and god knows how many others that keep me fiddling instead of making music, haha!
I am meticulous about keeping these up to date (except for the Waves highway robbery update plans)

I can finish loading cubase but there are heaps of missing plugins including those preloaded on my templates. Unsurprisingly they are the VST 3s. I tend to try to limit installations to 64 bit and vst3 where I have the option.

My theories so far is that it could be related to recent installations of -
1) Acronis software to backup to the cloud instead of my dodgy external drives.
2) Kontakt GUI Maker from Rigid Audio which had unusual installation instructions.

I have already tried a complete reinstall of Cubase with no effect.

But my gut feel is that they shouldn't have made that much difference. So before I go down the uninstall route for these it would be good if to hear from anyone has solved this or similar, or at least knows where i should start looking!

Thanks guys 'n gals!

[denizen]

Update:
The "EQ" on the mixer channel also fails to load. Strange!

There was also another update on Steinberg to 9.5.20.1 which I installed, which is great, but made absolutely no difference whatsoever to this problem!

[denizen]

Fixed this myself after a lot of research on teh net. It was actually fairly straightforward.
For anyone else that comes across this problem....

I renamed my Cubase preferences folder and restarted the PC. When I fired up Cubase it sorted itself out.

I found it here....
C:\Users\your_username*\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Cubase 9.5_64