Installation

Windows 10 or newer, x64. No installer: put the .exe anywhere.

Build	Size	Prerequisite
CSP-Palette-Companion-win-x64.exe	2.3 MiB	.NET 8 Desktop Runtime. Flagged by scanners less often.
CSP-Palette-Companion-win-x64-self-contained.exe	68.7 MiB	none

Get .NET Desktop Runtime 8.0.x, x64 from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/8.0. The plain .NET and ASP.NET Core runtimes do not work; WPF needs the Desktop runtime. Check with dotnet --list-runtimes | Select-String WindowsDesktop.

Verify the download against the SHA256 on the release page:

Get-FileHash .\CSP-Palette-Companion-win-x64.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Antivirus and SmartScreen

A single-file .NET app unpacks a runtime payload on first launch, exactly like packed malware, and these binaries are unsigned — so heuristics score them. The 68.7 MiB build unpacks more and is flagged more often. Unsigned executables also show Windows protected your PC: select More info, then Run anyway.

If a scanner quarantines the file, check the SHA256 first. A match means it is byte-for-byte the published file: exclude that one file, not its folder (Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Manage settings > Exclusions > Add an exclusion > File). No match: delete it. Report false positives at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/filesubmission.

Files

What	Path
Settings	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CSP Palette Companion\settings.json
Palettes	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CSP Palette Companion\Palettes
Mux handoff	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CSP Suite\mux-session.json, read-only

No registry keys; the pairing secret is never saved. Uninstall: exit from the tray, delete the .exe and %LOCALAPPDATA%\CSP Palette Companion.

Build from source

.NET 8 SDK on Windows; WPF does not build elsewhere. Publish src/CspPaletteCompanion.App with -r win-x64 -p:PublishSingleFile=true, plus --self-contained true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true for the standalone build. Trimming and NativeAOT are out: the tray icon references Windows Forms (NETSDK1175).