Is it safe to trash all Avid/Digidesign plugins (AAX) if I do not have Protools (and never will)

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Did a bit of HD spelunking over the weekend and found approx 4.2 of AVID aax crap stashed on my C Drive.

Did a bit of reading too and found that it appears to be OK to clean this away - but for those that have done it - did you simply wipe the entire "contents" of:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins

Including all standalone .aaxplugin files and even all the subfolders placed in here that contain other filetypes like xml, dll and other stuff in them?

That I am VERY perturbed that this stuff is here at all is another story - but what is up with EVERY plugin vendor these days? It's like they think AVID should get some sort of default free invisible pass during install?

Any info would be appreciated.

VP

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I always delete any Avid plugins that sneak in under the radar including the C:Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Plugins folder. No problems :)

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thecontrolcentre wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 4:42 pm I always delete any Avid plugins including the C:Program Files\Common files\Avid\Plugins folder. No problems :)
So you blast out the entire folder structure?

VP

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The plugins might be there again next update of what you use, VST or something.
This unless the installer for plugins has checkboxes what to install, and seems you did not have that option.

If an installer does not have options to exclude stuff, it might be confused next time if things in one place and not another.

I doubt many megabytes to earn, I would just leave it.

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If it was just megs to earn - I would not bother but at almost 5GB - that's a different story - espeically for something as useless as this. Can't have 5GB of a SSD taken by something like this.

Cheers!

VP

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Vocalpoint Studios wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 4:44 pm
thecontrolcentre wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 4:42 pm I always delete any Avid plugins including the C:Program Files\Common files\Avid\Plugins folder. No problems :)
So you blast out the entire folder structure?

VP
Yeah. I delete the lot every time they self-install ... some installers don't give you the option to not install them it seems. Might be time to go check again. I just installed a few updates :)

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thecontrolcentre wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 6:45 pmYeah. I delete the lot every time they self-install ... some installers don't give you the option to not install them it seems. Might be time to go check again. I just installed a few updates :)
Perfect. Will set up a Powershell script to take this out weekly.

Appreciate the info!

Cheers

VP

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thecontrolcentre wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 6:45 pm Might be time to go check again. I just installed a few updates :)
Yep. Just found half-a-dozen .aax files in Program Files\Common files\Avid ... all vst's I installed over the weekend. Found a couple in my Program Files (x86)\Common files too. :x now deleted.

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I used to delete them but then I had to download the ProTools trial to work on a small project for a friend and I really wished I had kept them. Now I just think it's worth it to keep them around to avoid the headache if I ever need them for a project in the future. But disk space always comes at a premium!

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I always delete all .aax files, and never have had any problems from doing so.
A well-behaved signature.

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nothing I'm using has installed any AAX in this iteration. In my name/Library/Audio/Plugins (nothing installs here) there is an empty Digidesign folder, nada mas.

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jancivil wrote: Mon Jun 26, 2023 6:26 am nothing I'm using has installed any AAX in this iteration. In my name/Library/Audio/Plugins (nothing installs here) there is an empty Digidesign folder, nada mas.
I first looked there too, promoted by the other aax thread in Effects a while back. But it got pointed out that they don’t go there.

Do an actual system search and you might find them elsewhere (I cannot remember where they turned up and am not on my Mac)
I lost my heart in Cap de Creus

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No, nothing turns up at all.

In years past, IME a couple of (more obscure) developers would stick plugins in the user name/Library (which functioned) but I haven't seen it in a dozen or fifteen years.

Just now I installed Plogue SFZ which gave AAX as 1 of 4 varieties.

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