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

[kylie]

Wow! I found 74 files totaling 1.71 GB of space. I had no idea.

I'm usually meticulous on de-selecting AAX, but it appears some brands aren't offering the choice and installing it silently. I initially thought this thread topic was just yet another whiny one, but it was actually rather helpful. Thanks!

I was sure I do the same (deselecting wherever I have the choice) but that did not prevent some manufacturers to upload almost 5 and a half GB aaxplugins to my disk. There was one single plugin by Arturia where I must have inattentively missed to deselect it, but AAS (taking up almost no space), XLN (AD), Antares, FAW, KORG, Melodyne, NI, Softube (that's the biggest chunk), even Synapse, Steinberg (Halion), Waves and UAD did not ask me if I needed aax as well. At least I can't remember but it seems to have become quite usual when companies switched from single installers to their own installer applications as a frontend for plugin downloads.
I don't remember if Softube left me a choice when I used the single installers but since I use their Central application I can choose where to put VST2 to (it's a global setting) but not deselect aax.

I now get an idea why the recent updates refused to install although I seemed to had enough space avaliable - they knew they would install three copies of every plugin...

Somehow I remember I found that folder before (so I can't exactly say I had no idea, even if I found it accidentially) but not only did I forget about it but also (like others) I was not sure if I might break something by just deleting the folders. And little would it help if everything is reinstalled silently with the next update anyway...

[MogwaiBoy]

Wow! I found 74 files totaling 1.71 GB of space. I had no idea.

I'm usually meticulous on de-selecting AAX, but it appears some brands aren't offering the choice and installing it silently. I initially thought this thread topic was just yet another whiny one, but it was actually rather helpful. Thanks!

I was sure I do the same (deselecting wherever I have the choice) but that did not prevent some manufacturers to upload almost 5 and a half GB aaxplugins to my disk. There was one single plugin by Arturia where I must have inattentively missed to deselect it, but AAS (taking up almost no space), XLN (AD), Antares, FAW, KORG, Melodyne, NI, Softube (that's the biggest chunk), even Synapse, Steinberg (Halion), Waves and UAD did not ask me if I needed aax as well. At least I can't remember but it seems to have become quite usual when companies switched from single installers to their own installer applications as a frontend for plugin downloads.
I don't remember if Softube left me a choice when I used the single installers but since I use their Central application I can choose where to put VST2 to (it's a global setting) but not deselect aax.

I now get an idea why the recent updates refused to install although I seemed to had enough space avaliable - they knew they would install three copies of every plugin...

Somehow I remember I found that folder before (so I can't exactly say I had no idea, even if I found it accidentially) but not only did I forget about it but also (like others) I was not sure if I might break something by just deleting the folders. And little would it help if everything is reinstalled silently with the next update anyway...

Well, from my experience also I find that Softube are one of the worst offenders for installing secret AAX versions of everything into the Avid plugins folder on my C Drive - and removing them only causes problems in Softube's 'Central' installer app... it says that those installations are now broken and need to be fixed..... by re-installing the AAX back to the Avid folder you just deleted them from

I'm going to contact some of these companies and just ask them why they do it. See if we can make some sense out of the practice. It's just bloat for no reason eating up precious real estate on my SSD operating system (C) drive.

[VitaminD]

Wow! I found 74 files totaling 1.71 GB of space. I had no idea.

I'm usually meticulous on de-selecting AAX, but it appears some brands aren't offering the choice and installing it silently. I initially thought this thread topic was just yet another whiny one, but it was actually rather helpful. Thanks!

Thanks for judging me as whiny

Haha well.. that was my initial thought. When I dug into what you were saying I discovered it was a legitimate issue. So kudos for expressing that concern on the forum.

ALL of the *.aax files on my computer were on my C:\ drive. Which tells me it was done in secret. Because, when I am given the choice, I install plugins on an entirely different drive letter. C is just for Operating System and related files here.

So it is kind of like VST3 where it automatically thinks you want them on C:\. That's a bit annoying. BUT at least I know both to look and where in the future.

Thanks again!

[MrJubbly]

My hypothesis is that pro tool users are dumb and don't even know what plugin format Protools uses so it is better to not give them the option to select.

And what about the 99% of users who use different DAWs, who never have, nor ever will use Protools?

It's a pretty strange/lazy/wilfully arrogant decision for a developer to knowingly install an unrequired bloated footprint of files on the vast majority of their customer's devices. Wasting valuable storage space on their system drives.

Possibly, just to accommodate a tiny niche fraction of the customer base that may happen to use that outdated Protools dinoDAW (whether they are dumb, or otherwise?)

Outrageous behaviour!

[JamminFool]

Must be a Windows thing?

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

LOL - you're a Mac user, so you don't know how to search your own hard drives properly... or how a computer works.

effin' hilarious!

[yellowmix]

I wrote a Task Scheduler job to recursively delete the relevant folder on Windows systems when I noticed this a few years ago (attached). You can import it, set an appropriate recurrence, time, and options (can have it run on boot if your workstation is not 24/7).

As for the why, there are several reasons.

Biggest one is support. You'd be amazed (or perhaps not) that most people are not technically proficient or not in a debugging frame of mind when encountering an issue. It saves significant labor costs to install it where it's supposed to be (e.g, what if you install Pro Tools in the future?). AAS is particularly aggressive about this; they plant plugins in every conceivable location possible.

ProTools could be a factor. Developers pay a license for every AAX plugin and ability to distribute AAX can be seen as fragile. Developer license dictates where it goes and can be interpreted as requiring installation.

Inability. Plugins aren't just about DSP, it requires systems programming, UI and UX, and in some cases the entire range of software development. Installation is in the systems programming domain, and many developers outsource it to tried-and-true development kits like Inno Setup, Installshield, etc.. They're not exactly turnkey and it requires work to offer options like selecting formats. Would you rather a one-person operation spend time on this or on the plugin?

So thank the developers that give you such options, and note they likely are highly skilled and have better support.

[HAL76]

2.7 GB of useless shit altough I have always only selected VST3.

Thank you for mentioning this!

[kylie]

Wow! I found 74 files totaling 1.71 GB of space. I had no idea.

I'm usually meticulous on de-selecting AAX, but it appears some brands aren't offering the choice and installing it silently. I initially thought this thread topic was just yet another whiny one, but it was actually rather helpful. Thanks!

Somehow I remember I found that folder before (so I can't exactly say I had no idea, even if I found it accidentially) but not only did I forget about it but also (like others) I was not sure if I might break something by just deleting the folders. And little would it help if everything is reinstalled silently with the next update anyway...

Well, from my experience also I find that Softube are one of the worst offenders for installing secret AAX versions of everything into the Avid plugins folder on my C Drive - and removing them only causes problems in Softube's 'Central' installer app... it says that those installations are now broken and need to be fixed..... by re-installing the AAX back to the Avid folder you just deleted them from

I just tried to trim a single Softube .aaxplugin file to 0byte (actually I created a new empty file named like the original which I moved off that subfolder) and did a Central rerun. No complaints, no reinstall. Not a guaranteed fix but it's worth trying. A tweak in the aforementioned Task Scheduler job could do this as well, I assume. If just deleting them causes Central to download them over and over, trimming could save a lot of time and bandwidth.

[Aloysius]

Glad I read the title of this thread. 6.29 GB of s*it in some s*itty AVID folder. I was wondering where my space was disappearing to.

Thank you MogwaiBoy.

[dlandis]

I have 4.72 gigabytes worth of Pro Tools plugins in:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio

Thank you SO MUCH for the heads-up. I may have you all beat on the amount to wasted space (I've never had Pro Tools on my machine and the amount of space that I lost is a dubious distinction to be sure): 13.9 GB.

Totally absurd.

Again, thanks so much for the note!

[Funky40]

Okeeey, had NO clue either !!!
7.65GB, 255 files.
WTF

Thanks @threadstarter + meaningful contributors !

[MogwaiBoy]

Awww, you're all welcome my honeys

See, they're wrong about us - we don't just moan on the internet and do nothing about it - sometimes we moan on the internet and actually do something about it

I'm glad I could be useful for something today - Covid seriously hindered my usefulness otherwise.

PS I can't change my nick to MogwaiMan but you know I'm super grown up and stuff now.

[kritikon]

Good thread.
I checked mine and assumed I wouldn't have much, as I don't have that many 3rd party plugins. I still had over 0.5 GB. I just deleted the whole Avid folder (I don't use anything by them).

Actually, it spurred me to go on and clear out other plugins that I never use - freebies, trials etc and it surprised me how many of those I had, too. Even cleared out things like a freebie version of Melodyne that I forgot I had and never once used...which then went on to crash Cubase so that it would not load. Every time it started up in Safe Mode and stopped at ARA services then crashed out. Which wasted a half hour of my time, as I don't use Melodyne I had no idea what ARA is. Finally figured out to properly uninstall it rather than just delete the .dll and hey presto Cubase worked again. Which is a lesson on how intrusive some supposedly simple music sw is.

[jens]

Are you guys not using TreeSize?

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free?ca=1&ca=1

[MJACau]

Are you guys not using TreeSize?

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free?ca=1&ca=1

Windir free and better.
https://windirstat.net/