Installation

Download SMACC

The button above always downloads the installer for the latest version — double-click SMACC-Setup.exe and click through. The installer:

installs SMACC per-user — no administrator rights or IT involvement needed;
adds a Start menu entry (and, if you opt in, a desktop shortcut);
associates .smacc files, so double-clicking one opens the Start a session dialog with it preselected;
includes the EEG Annotator — the post-hoc EEG viewer/annotator, opened from the Launcher;
registers an uninstaller — remove SMACC from Settings › Apps like any other program. Uninstalling never touches your data: SMACC files, recordings, and logs under ~/SMACC (or your data directories) all stay put. The uninstaller reminds you of this (and of the folder’s location) when it finishes, so finding the folder afterwards is expected — delete it manually if you no longer need the data.

Installing a newer version over an existing one upgrades it in place.

To get an older or specific version, browse the releases page: pick the release you want, open its Assets dropdown, and download from there.

System requirements

SMACC runs on 64-bit Windows 10 or later.

Windows SmartScreen — “Windows protected your PC”

SMACC isn’t code-signed yet, so when you run the installer Windows SmartScreen may show a blue “Windows protected your PC” box. This is expected for any new, unsigned program. To proceed anyway, click More info, then Run anyway.

Administrator privileges and the UAC prompt

For some features you will need to open SMACC with Administrator privileges (right-click the Start menu entry and select Run as administrator). Windows then shows a User Account Control (UAC) prompt asking whether to allow the app to make changes — click Yes to continue. For everyday use (audio cues, dream reports, LSL markers) you can run SMACC normally, without administrator rights.

For IT departments

The default install is per-user (under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\SMACC, no elevation). On managed machines where per-user installs are blocked — e.g. AppLocker policies on %LOCALAPPDATA% — run the same installer machine-wide instead: SMACC-Setup.exe /ALLUSERS (elevates, installs to Program Files).

Updating SMACC

From the Launcher, File › Check for updates… asks GitHub whether a newer release exists and, if one does, offers to open the download page in your browser — run the new installer and it upgrades the existing install in place. SMACC never checks on its own: lab machines are often offline, and studies usually pin one version for their whole run, so checking is always an explicit click.

Development build (experimental)

Every code change merged to main is rebuilt and published as a single rolling development build, so you can try an unreleased fix or feature before the next stable release.

Download the development build

Unzip it and run SMACC.exe from the extracted SMACC folder. It’s portable, so it runs without installing and leaves any installed copy of SMACC untouched.

For testing only

The development build is unsigned, unreleased, and not tested, and it is overwritten every time main changes — so it’s a moving target, not a fixed version. Don’t use it to run a study; pin a stable release for that. The Download SMACC button at the top of this page and the in-app File › Check for updates… always point at the latest stable release, never this build.

After installing

By default SMACC stores everything under ~/SMACC. To use a different location, set the environment variable SMACC_DIRECTORY to the directory you want; SMACC creates it and its subfolders on first run.

The rest of setup is covered on the relevant pages:

Your study configuration lives in a portable SMACC file. SMACC seeds a default.smacc and opens it when you don’t pick another, so it works out of the box. The installer associates .smacc files; enable or repair the association any time from File › Associate .smacc files (Windows) in the Launcher.
Audio cues go in the data directory’s cues/ folder, alongside the seeded demo-* cues — see Audio cues.
Dream-report surveys are managed from the Dream recording panel — see Dream reports & surveys.
A recording mic: to record dreams, bind your mic to Bedroom mic 1 in the Devices window (the Panels column) — see Audio routing.