Installation.md

Installation

Welcome! This is the installation guide for STELLA. Below are the types of installation you can use:

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Table of Contents:

• Requirements and Reccomendations
  • Software
  • Hardware
• Installation Methods
  • Command Line
  • Manual Download
• Installation FAQ

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Requirements and Reccomendations

Below are the required and reccomended software and hardware setups for STELLA

Software

Required Software

Software	Version	Description	Download Link	Notes
Windows^1^	10 (version 1607 or later)	Minimal Operating System	Windows 10	Ensure latest updates are installed
.NET Runtime	8.0	Required to run .NET 8.0 applications	Download .NET Runtime 8.0	Needed for running the application
Internet Connection (SW)	-	For full functionality including crawling and automated downloads	-	Essential for internet-based features
DirectX	9	For handling animations and graphical operations	Download DirectX	Needed for advanced graphical operations (Comes with Windows natively but ensure existence)

Recommended Software

Software	Version	Description	Download Link	Notes
Windows^1^	11	Targeted OS	Download Windows 11	Ensure latest update for full functionality
DirectX	12	Targest DirectX version with full compatibility with the application	Download DirectX	A DirectX version should be natively on your system already

Optional Software

Software	Version	Description	Download Link	Notes
ILSpy	Any	Useful for decompiling the application to see source code -- required if contributing or debugging.	Download ILSpy	Use with an IDE (See below reccomended IDE)
Visual Studio	2022.16 or above	Pair with the above decompiler to view and edit source code	Download VS2022	Use with decompiler (See above decompiler), This is just the reccomended IDE, but any with .NET support works.
SuperF4	1.4	Forcibly terminates active processes with Control Alt F4, where the normal Alt F4 just asks the program to quit. Useful for debugging or just generally if STELLA crashes as it may overlay the screen with an unclosable, unminimizable blocking window.	Download SuperF4	Highly reccomend

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Required Libraries

Included in Published Application, Included for troubleshooting purposes

Library	Version	Description	Notes
Newtonsoft.Json	13.0.3	For JSON serialization and deserialization	Useful
AspectInjector	2.8.3-pre-3	For Aspect Injection used for logging and exception handling	Quite Useful
ini-parser	2.5.2	For ini serialization and deserialization	Useful
NAudio	2.2.1	For interfacing natively with system audio (HW & SW)	Useful, Dont need excessive PInvoke
SevenZipExtractor	1.0.17	For Extracting .7z files	Useful
SharpCompress	0.36.0	For Extracting .zip files	Useful
System.Management	9.0.0-preview.3.24172.9	For getting detailed information on the host system	Useful
System.Speech	9.0.0-preview.3.24172.9	For the STT functionality	EXTREMELY Useful
System	9.0.0-preview.3.24172.9	Natively included library for 99% of functionality.	Obscenely Useful

Hardware

Component	Minimum	Recommended	Notes
Processor	1 GHz or faster	2 GHz or faster	Dual-core or better
RAM	1 GB^2^	4 GB	More RAM improves performance
Disk Space	200mb^3^	1 GB free space^3^	For installation and application data
Graphics	DirectX 9 or later	DirectX 11 or later	For better graphical performance
Internet Connection	Required for full functionality	Broadband internet connection recommended	Essential for web-based features

Footnotes:

^1^ -- Windows is the currently supported operating system, but Stella is aimed to be run on both Linux and MacOS in the near future, stay tuned!

^2^ -- This is for bare minimum functionality, for use of graphical operations please have 4GB or more for a smooth experience.

^3^ -- If used for alot of screenshotting, video saving and logging, then change the minimum and maximum to 10GB and 50GB respectively, scaled to how much you'll be using high-storage functionalities (Far higher range as videos are dynamic and may range from a few mb (short videos) to a few GB (longer videos))

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Installation Methods

Command Line

This uses the terminal / powershell / the command line interface and a sequence of win commands to install the compiled STELLA to a chosen directory.

Manual Download

Manually Download STELLA through Google Drive to your downloads folder.

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Command Line

1. Open your PowerShell, either through the:

   1. Terminal

      1. Open Terminal (below)
      2. Hold down the Left Control button
      3. Hold down the Left Shift button
      4. Press the 1 button
      5. Release the Control and Shift buttons
      

   ii.

   Powershell

   1. Open Powershell (below)
   

   Your Screen should look like this: Note: You may have something other than Default, this is normal.

2. Copy and paste the code (Code) into the prompt:

   Expand: Copy and Paste Steps

   1. Copy it

      1. Select all the below code. It should look like this (color may differ)
      2. Hold the Control button
      3. Press the C button
      4. Release the Control button
   2. Navigate to the folder you want the installation to be in

      1. By default, this will install to the folder you see after the PS. So, a folder like C:\Users\your_user_name.
      2. You can change the folder by:

         1. Open file explorer
            1. Either:
               1. Open this App:
            2. OR
               1. Hold down the Windows button
               2. Press the E button
               3. Release the Windows button
         2. Navigate to the folder you'd like to install STELLA in
         3. Click on the Navigation bar and copy the folder path

            1. Click on this (below)
            
            2. Press and Hold down the Control button
            3. Press down the C button
            4. Release the Control button
         4. Switch back to the prompt window
         5. Input: cd the_path_to_your_folder

            (i.e) cd C:/Users/Default/Downloads

   3. Switch to the prompt window
   4. Paste the Code

      1. Press and Hold down the Control button
      2. Press down the V button
      3. Release the Control button
   5. A notice should appear looking like the below:
   6. Press Paste anyway

3. Press the Enter button

4. Wait for the operation to complete, It should write about 70,000,000 - 90,000,000 bytes before exiting (should look similar ot the below image)

(It'll be complete when the blue bar disappears, See below image)

5. Locate the zipfile in your chosen directory called stella.zip

6. Extract it to same folder

   1. Select the file by clicking on it
   
   2. Click 'Extract All'
   
   3. In the Wizard that opens, remove the stella from the folder path
   4. Press the Enter button

7. There should now be a bunch of miscellaneous files, including one named cat.exe, (see below image), this is the application and is what you should run. (See This link on making shortcuts).

Now you're done! Stella is installed and you can use it by double clicking on cat.exe.

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Code

$url = "https://drive.usercontent.google.com/download?id=1qa_TaBkjumHaJJE1L-pe6FsDrkJO-S0o&export=download&authuser=0&confirm=t&uuid=8b8e4ca4-91b6-43f9-af9f-b75b1e6ebe56&at=APZUnTU0lIWJXrKJYDedOlY0D4U9%3A1719434822671"
$output = ".\stella.zip"

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $output

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Manual Download

1. Click here
2. Click Download or

3. Wait for it to download
4. Go to your downloads

   1. Open file explorer
      1. Either:
         1. Open this App:
      OR
      1. Hold down the Windows button
      2. Press the E button
      3. Release the Windows button
   2. Click the Downloads folder button
   

5. Extract it to the folder you want the installation in

   1. Select the file by clicking on it
   
   2. Click 'Extract All'
   
   3. In the Wizard that opens, change the path to where you want it to extract to
   
   4. Press the Enter button

6. Wait for it to extract

7. There should now be a bunch of miscellaneous files, including one named cat.exe, (see below image), this is the application and is what you should run. (See This link on making shortcuts).

Now you're done! Stella is installed and you can use it by double clicking on cat.exe.

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Installation FAQ

Missing Files or Dependancies

• Turn off your antivirus
• Redownload again (See Installation Methods)
• Ensure Zip extraction completes correctly
• Check all DLLs and ensure they match the ones listed in Required Libraries
• If all else fails, download and compile from source from here. (See .NET source compiling here).

How do I compile from source?

• Ensure you're invited to the repo
• Go here
• Press the <Code> button (image below)
• Press the DownloadZip button (image below)
• You now have the source code!
• See here for source compiling for .NET

Screensizing incorrect

This shouldn't happen as STELLA is inherently designed to work on all DPIs (adjusting for any screen)_

• Try STELLA on another moniter to see if the problem persists
• Change DPI scaling for the affected screen(s) following this guide here.
• Download the latest version of STELLA

Shortcuts not responding

STELLA uses hooks, low level methods that interface with the functional layer of your computer. As such, there's a timer for these hooks that terminates them if they don't respond fast enough, causing the unresponsiveness. This will be especially true if you're putting your computer to sleep continuously. You can try:

• Restart the program
• Restart computer
• Extend the hook timeout from registry (See here for a discussion on it)

.NET Runtime missing

• You can download the runtime here, make sure you get version 8.0

How do I Update?

• Just delete the folder you downloaded and run STELLA from, download the latest version, and install it in the same location
• There is also an update module on the way, in which it'll be done from within the app -- stay tuned~

Note

STELLA Generates detailed log files, which can be found at C:\ProgramData\Kitty\Cat\NYANPASU\Logs.