Installing GCnester and checking your version
What the installer sets up, what happens the first time you launch, where GCnester keeps its shared settings and posts, and how to find your version number when you talk to support. Activation is at the end.
When a GCnester installer is available, download it from your account's Downloads page. GCnester is a 64-bit Windows desktop application. The program itself installs for the current user and doesn't need administrator rights. If the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime or the Visual C++ runtime is missing, the installer sets those up first, and Windows may ask for administrator approval for that one step because they install for the whole computer. Exact prompts and the install location will be added here once the installer ships.
Every launch checks for a new release before anything else. If the check can't tell whether there's an update, it shows the error and lets you carry on. If an update is required, it's applied without asking again; if the download or apply fails, you get Retry or Exit. Update checks never change what your license allows.
Shop settings are shared by everyone on the computer by default, not kept per Windows user. The default location is the GCmaker Settings folder under ProgramData (GCnester shares its foundation with GCmaker, so the folder keeps that name); a shop can point the program at a different settings folder, so check where yours is configured before backing it up. Posts live separately in the GCmaker Posts folder under ProgramData: factory templates fill in any that are missing and never replace a file you already have with the same name. Your jobs and parts are ordinary files you save wherever you choose.
Help, then About, shows the version as three numbers. That's the application version, which is different from the post name and version printed at the top of a posted program. Support may ask for both.
GCnester activates with the license key from your GC-CAD account, entered in the program. Step-by-step screens for this will be added to this guide with the first release.
Questions people ask
Not for GCnester itself, which installs for the current user. If the computer is missing the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime or the Visual C++ runtime, that part installs for the whole computer and Windows may ask for administrator approval once.