# Plugin Manager - Add / Remove Effects, Generators and Analyzers

From Audacity Development Manual

Use the Plugin Manager to add or remove shipped effects and plugins and third-party plugins of supported types, without the need to restart Audacity.

- By default all the Built-in effects are loaded and enabled in Audacity (with the sole exception of Classic Filters).

  Accessed by: Effect > Plugin Manager, Generate > Plugin Manager, Analyze > Plugin Manager or Tools > Plugin Manager

  In the case of this image, accessed by: Effect > Plugin Manager

## Filters

There are two filters for the table of Effects, Generators, Analyzers and Tools:

- Show: the options are All (default), Enabled and Disabled.
- Type: will list all the plugin types that it finds on your computer, default is All and lists all plugin types.
- Category: the options are All, Generator, Effect, Analyzer and Tool.

  The default you get will depend from which menu item you accessed the Plugin Manager.

## Search

You can use the Search box as an additional filter by typing the first letter of letters of the Effect, Generator, Analyzer or Tool that you require.

## Enabling and disabling

All entries shown in the dialog as Enabled, checked "on", will be visible and available in the appropriate menu: Effect, Generate, Analyze or Tools.

### Changing an individual entry in the list

To change the state of any effect, generator, analyzer or tool click in its checkbox in the Enabled column. You can navigate in the table using your keyboard up/down arrows, or you can type the first letter of the item you require.

### Changing the status of multiple entries

Make a selection and use Space to toggle the state of the entries in the list.

- Press Ctrl + A to select all items in the view you are in (⌘ + A on Mac).
- Multiple individual items from the list can be selected using Ctrl + Click to select each additional item, or Shift + Click to select a range of items.

A selection of multiple items can include items in differing on/off states, note that the toggling of the selected group is uniform and is based on the state of the last item that was selected.

### Confirming your changes

Once you have made all the change you require click OK to confirm the changes. Note that clicking the Escape key, the Cancel button or the window close button will discard your changes.

Disabling an effect, generator, analyzer or tool only disables it in Audacity, and does not uninstall it from your system.

## Rescan button

Clicking on the Rescan button will cause Audacity to rescan your various plugin locations and make available any new plugins you have added since Audacity was launched.

## Resetting effects

Resetting your Audacity settings (for example, by reinstalling Audacity using the Windows installer with "Reset Preferences" enabled) does not change the enabled or disabled state of your effects.

If you want to go back to the default set of enabled effects, generators, analyzers and Tools that Audacity was installed with, exit Audacity and, open Audacity's folder for application data and delete the file "pluginregistry.cfg".