AU is mac only, I'm not sure if it's better than VST3. On PC you should just use VST3 (I don't even bother installing the VST2 or 32 bit versions anymore). If you right click on a plug in in the browser, you can click 'hide' so it doesn't show up (there's a little icon at the top of the browser to show hidden plug ins if you need to access them again).