Installation

MAS ships two artefacts on miloch.dev/mas:

• MilochApplicationStudio-win-Setup.exe — Velopack installer. Puts MAS under %LOCALAPPDATA%\MilochApplicationStudio\, registers Start Menu shortcuts, and enrols the workstation for auto-updates on the stable channel.
• MilochApplicationStudio-win-Portable.zip — a self-contained folder layout. Extract anywhere the user account can write. No installer runs; no shortcut is created; auto-update is available from inside the app but off by default.

The installer is signed with a standard code-signing certificate. Windows SmartScreen may prompt the first time an unknown publisher's Setup.exe runs; the second dropdown (More info → Run anyway) proceeds. Once the installed MAS.exe accumulates enough reputation on the workstation, SmartScreen stops warning.

System requirements #

MAS 2.0 is Windows-only by design. ARM64 support is not shipped in 2.0; there is no macOS or Linux build. The app does not use any platform-specific Windows 11 features that would prevent a Windows 10 22H2 install.

Install flow #

With Setup.exe (recommended) #

1. Download MilochApplicationStudio-win-Setup.exe from miloch.dev/mas.
2. Run the file. Velopack installs silently after the SmartScreen Run anyway click; the whole install finishes in about ten seconds.
3. MAS.exe launches automatically on completion. The first-run Welcome page appears.
4. Auto-update is armed against https://miloch.dev/mas/updates/stable/. The check happens once per launch; updates apply on the next restart. The toggle is at Settings → Updates.

With the portable ZIP #

1. Download MilochApplicationStudio-win-Portable.zip.
2. Extract to a folder the user can write to (e.g. C:\Tools\MAS\ or a personal folder on OneDrive).
3. Double-click MilochApplicationStudio.exe. The first-run Welcome page appears.
4. Auto-update is available (Settings → Updates) but disabled by default because portable installs are typically kept on managed storage where the packager decides update cadence.

Both variants write app data under %LOCALAPPDATA%\MilochApplicationStudio\ (profiles, recent lists, Memory-DB) and log files under %LOCALAPPDATA%\MilochApplicationStudio\logs\. The portable variant uses the same locations — it is portable in the sense that the executable folder is relocatable, not that it runs sandboxed.

First launch checklist #

Once MAS is open, three small setup steps get the pipeline unblocked:

1. Pick a language. Default is English (en-US). Switch to German (de-DE) via Settings → General → Language if preferred. A restart takes effect.
2. Create a profile. Settings → Profiles → New. A profile bundles SCCM connection details (Site Server, Site Code) or Intune tenant details (Tenant ID, Client ID) — most packagers have one profile for their lab and one for production. Details are in the Required settings chapter.
3. (Optional) Point at a code-signing certificate. If the organisation signs its PSADT scripts, add the cert under Settings → Signing. MAS accepts any cert usable by Set-AuthenticodeSignature — a PFX file with a password, a certificate installed in the current user's Cert:\CurrentUser\My store, or a HSM-backed cert reachable via CNG.

That's all — Capture, Build and Ship are now available.

Uninstall #

Setup.exe registered MAS in Apps & Features. Remove from there. The uninstaller leaves %LOCALAPPDATA%\MilochApplicationStudio\ in place so the Memory-DB and recent-projects list survive a reinstall — clear that folder manually if a truly clean state is required.

Portable installs uninstall by deleting the extracted folder. Application data still lives under %LOCALAPPDATA% regardless of the installation type.

Related chapters #

• Vocabulary — the names for each pipeline step MAS uses in the UI.
• Your first package — seven-minute walkthrough that produces a real, deployable SCCM or Intune package.
• Required settings — what has to be set in Settings before Ship works.