Original installation program for CleanStartMenu, named CSM_install,
was created with Microsoft's IExpress utility. Nonetheless, CSM_install,
seen as a CAB extractor, was tagged as unsafe software by many security
programs and so was difficult if not impossible to use in most corporate
environments.
As from CleanStartMenu release 9, CSM_install
is replaced by the SmartInstaller program. SmartInstaller (written by me in C#) is a CLR based
application targeting .NET 4.6.2 (in order to not require any installation
to run in Windows 10* and later).
Depending on the underlying system characteristics, SmartInstaller will
install the 32 bits or the 64 bits version of CleanStartMenu. Since
version 2.0, SmartInstaller does not propose any more an optional 32
bits installation in the case of 64 bits systems: these
installations did not work correctly due notably to registry redirection.
Note that the last 32 bits version of CleanStartMenu is version
1.3.1 whereas the 64 bits version is 2.0.1 and will eventually be further
updated. SmartInstaller installs CleanStartMenu, the utility
program CSMprofiles, their help files and an uninstallation script.
The later should never be called directly and no shortcut to it is created
in the OS Start Menu. The uninstallation of CleanStartMenu
is done throughthe Programs and Features control panel or
the Applications tab of the Settings app in Windows 10 and 11*.
SmartInstaller also adds CleanStartMenu to the Startup
folder so that it is launched at system startup and creates in the OS Start
Menu a CleanStartMenu folder with shortcuts to the
application and its utility program.
SmartInstaller checks for the availability of the
C runtime libraries required by the programs and if necessary tries and
downloads them from Microsoft's
web site and then tries and installs them (which will fail if you
don't have administrative privileges on the target computer but won't crash
the installation; you may also cancel the runtime libraries installation
without cancelling the installation of CleanStartMenu). Note that
uninstalling CleanStartMenu does not remove the runtime libraries.
Depending on whether it is run with administrative
privileges (run as administrator or started from an administrator account
with deactivated UAC) or not, SmartInstaller performs a system-wide
or a single-user installation. It offers an option for single-user
installation when run with administrative privileges. In the case of
single-user installations, program files are copied to the user profile
folder.
SmartInstaller 2.0 window examples:
The link in the installer window takes you here
on this website.
