I was wondering if there is an easy/clean way of backing up any Presets that you might have for the various Effects in Audacity. I believe that the file that contains them is the pluginsettings.cfg. But if, for example, you are doing a clean install and want to pull the Effect Presets from an existing installation and incorporate them into the clean installation, is there a way to do that?
On Audacity 2.4.2, I do not believe that a clean install will change your plug-in settings or defaults. To reset all of these preferences, I think you have to delete the entire Roaming > audacity folder or at a minimum the pluginsettings.cfg file that you mentioned. Having said that, I have had good results with making a rookie backup of the file you mentioned.
Specifically, exit Audacity. Rename pluginsettings.cfg to hold. Restart Audacity: all prior user settings are lost. Exit Audacity. Delete pluginsettings.cfg. Rename hold to pluginsettings.cfg. Restart Audacity. Settings magically re-appear.