Why do some companies secretly install Pro Tools plugins on my system?

[MogwaiBoy]

Serious question. Is there a reason why?

For their convenience, is it not obvious?

As has been pointed out already, conscientious developers allow the customer to configure which formats are installed.

I don't see the convenience for them - if anything it creates more problems from people like me distracting their support about unwanted Pro Tools plugins filling up their harddrives. I'm curious to know the reason why so I will contact some of these devs. I don't see the convenience, sorry - if you could elaborate on it a bit more please, to help me understand.

My assumption is two-fold: (1) You are the exception, and for every one of you there presumably are 2 or 3 ProTools users who would call in and complain that AAX is not working. Judging just from this thread, for every one of you complaining directly to the developers there are multiples of customers silently deleting the plugins and moving on. (2) The packaging tools that most devs use seem to have evolved to allow more granular installation choices in the past x years (not sure what the value of x is), and conscientious developers have updated and offered the choice to their customers. I don't know it it's a toolchain thing or an assumption about what gets installed thing, but I have seen an evolution over the 3-4 years I've been paying attention.

Fair enough - I see your point of view. It's not a big deal - just delete the files and quit moaning. You can delete that useless Avid folder faster than pushing the "New Topic" button on this form. I get that. It just doesn't answer my question.

[Tj Shredder]

Usually the installers I get, give me the option to select/deselect the formats which should be installed. They often also install standalones which I never need or want. Especially for the likes of Waves/Arturia/NI with proprietary downloader/authorizer apps, its worth to send them a feature request to have a default setting for silent installs, which exclude certain plugins. If they where smart, they would simply don‘t install them if the folder they should place them in, simply didn‘t exist. Instead, they create it. Maybe you could prevent it by adjusting permissions?

[Debutante]

CRAP.

Add Positive Grid, MCDSP, , Tone Empire, Imaginado, Cakewalk, Babelson

[enroe]

My assumption is two-fold:

(1) You are the exception, and for every one of you there presumably are 2 or 3 ProTools users who would call in and complain that AAX is not working. Judging just from this thread, for every one of you complaining directly to the developers there are multiples of customers silently deleting the plugins and moving on.

(2) The packaging tools that most devs use seem to have evolved to allow more granular installation choices in the past x years (not sure what the value of x is), and conscientious developers have updated and offered the choice to their customers. I don't know it it's a toolchain thing or an assumption about what gets installed thing, but I have seen an evolution over the 3-4 years I've been paying attention.

Yes, the two points could apply. But I would like to add a third point:

(3) The marketing+customer department gets involved and decrees that everything
- even if not always activated - is always installed. With the installation of a small
piece of software, the entire customer PC is hijacked, so to speak, and used as
an advertising platform: The "customer" - i.e. the PC user - sees what else is available
and what he still needs to activate, meaning he needs to "buy".

It's a clever strategy - and it usually works quite well. Of course there are a few
customers - like "MogwaiBoy" here - who get upset about it.

[whyterabbyt]

I do use ProTools, and I am not in favour of installers which install any plugin format, including AAX, by default with no option for me to control that. I put up with it, same as I put up with redundant VST3 installs, but its unnecessary work on my part to have to keep tidying things up when the developer could do just a little more work when they build the installer script.

The mooted notion that ProTools users would somehow complain that a plugin they'd try to install was not there because they were given the choice of installing AAX format but didnt select that option seems... counterintuitive.

[revvy]

Must be a Windows thing?

Just checked on my Mac - zero AAX installed *shrug*

[dayjob]

Must be a Windows thing?

Just checked on my Mac - zero AAX installed *shrug*

nah. they're there. i'm on mac and delete the aax folder from time to time. you may have the folder hidden.

Macintosh HD-> Library -> Application Support -> Avid -> Audio -> Plug Ins.

then delete the contents of that 'plug ins' folder which will have .AAX format plug ins in it. unless somehow none of the plug ins you own have installed the AAX format which would be interesting.

[FapFilter]

i'd say this is especially pronounced on Mac, since many companies won't give you the options to select which versions you'd like to install and are installing the whole bundle of AAX, AU, VST, VST3 instead. (those companies that do CLAP have been the ones for me who were asking what to install anyway so far)
even if the same company will give you these options on Windows.
not all of them are doing this, but still way more than on Windows for whatever reason

[revvy]

Must be a Windows thing?

Just checked on my Mac - zero AAX installed *shrug*

nah. they're there. i'm on mac and delete the aax folder from time to time. you may have the folder hidden.

Macintosh HD-> Library -> Application Support -> Avid -> Audio -> Plug Ins.

then delete the contents of that 'plug ins' folder which will have .AAX format plug ins in it. unless somehow none of the plug ins you own have installed the AAX format which would be interesting.

Oh I see! In 18 years of ignoring AAX on my Macs I never even knew they installed to a different path to VST/AU.

Oh well, deleted. Choice not to install offered by all devs would be nice. Don't care that much though.

[dayjob]

Must be a Windows thing?

Just checked on my Mac - zero AAX installed *shrug*

nah. they're there. i'm on mac and delete the aax folder from time to time. you may have the folder hidden.

Macintosh HD-> Library -> Application Support -> Avid -> Audio -> Plug Ins.

then delete the contents of that 'plug ins' folder which will have .AAX format plug ins in it. unless somehow none of the plug ins you own have installed the AAX format which would be interesting.

Oh I see! In 18 years of ignoring AAX on my Macs I never even knew they installed to a different path to VST/AU.

Oh well, deleted. Choice not to install offered by all devs would be nice. Don't care that much though.

yeah. different format. .different install path.. and i agree. it's no big deal. just delete the folder contents from time to time.

[DMG68]

It’s a long time minor inconveniences to deal with. I created a folder with shortcuts to files to delete every so often, and have the Avid folder in there. I was surprised when I first noticed it some years ago. Just have to keep deleting until the foolishness stops.

[Songwriter101]

Glad I found the thread. I could delete 1,7GB of this junk on my windows system. Phew!

[e@rs]

Sinevibes too.

[Michael L]

On most Mac installers there is a Custom button that shows up on the bottom left that reveals the different formats, and you can unclick AAX.

[osiris]

I had successfully kept AAX plugins off my computer because everything I had installed gave me a choice, then I reinstalled my NI stuff only to find a folder named Avid with all the NI stuff in AAX format. I did it through Native Access and I don't remember being given a choice.