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Data Collage Data Collage Docs

Install & Launch

This section takes you from “I have a Windows machine” to “Data Collage is open and activated.” If you’ve worked through §2 — Before You Begin, you already have the basics lined up.

Download

Section titled “Download”

You’ll receive a download link from Newarc. Two installer formats are available:

  • DataCollage-Setup.exe — recommended for most users. Standard Windows installer.
  • DataCollage-Setup.msi — for IT-managed deployments via SCCM, Intune, or similar enterprise tooling.

Pick the format that suits you. The end result is the same app either way.

Install

Section titled “Install”

Double-click the installer and follow the wizard. A few things to know:

  • No admin rights required. The installer runs in user-mode and writes to your local profile.
  • Pick your install location when prompted. The default works for most people; pick something else if your IT policy requires a specific path.
  • Windows SmartScreen may show “Windows protected your PC” the first time you run an unsigned installer. Click More info → Run anyway to proceed.

A note on code signing: Data Collage will be fully code-signed before public launch. During the V1 test phase, the SmartScreen warning above is expected and safe to bypass — once code signing is in place, the warning disappears.

First launch

Section titled “First launch”

Open Data Collage from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut. The app opens straight to the License activation screen.

Activate your license

Section titled “Activate your license”

License activation screen showing the Machine ID with a Copy button, and the Email and License key fields

The activation screen shows three fields:

  • Machine ID — a unique identifier for this specific computer, already filled in. There’s a Copy button next to it.
  • Email — the email address you want associated with your license.
  • License key — the key Newarc will send back to you.

Activation flow:

  1. Click Copy next to the Machine ID.
  2. Send an email to datacollage@newarcinc.com with:
    • The Machine ID you just copied
    • The email address you’d like to use for your license
  3. The Newarc team will activate your license and reply with both the email address (the one you proposed, normalized) and a license key (typically within one business day).
  4. Back in Data Collage, paste both into the activation screen — exactly as Newarc returned them — and click Validate.
  5. The app unlocks and continues to the welcome experience below.

The Machine ID is tied to this specific machine. If you reinstall on the same machine, your license activates automatically against the saved record. If you move to a new machine, email us — we’ll reactivate.

Welcome and guided tour

Section titled “Welcome and guided tour”

After activation, a Welcome to Data Collage dialog appears with a brief feature summary and two buttons: Take the tour or Maybe later.

Welcome to Data Collage dialog with the feature bullets and the Maybe later and Take the tour buttons

The guided tour is a 90-second walk-through of the main parts of the app — the activity bar on the left, the editor, the results grid, and the key panels (Connections, Query Library, Analyses, Metadata). It’s the fastest way to get oriented, so we recommend running it at least once.

If you skip it (or want to revisit it later — including showing it to a colleague), you can re-launch the tour anytime from Help → Take the tour.

What’s next

Section titled “What’s next”

Head to §4 — Your First Query for the 5-minute walkthrough that ends with you exporting your first result set.

Updates

Section titled “Updates”

Data Collage checks for updates automatically when it starts. When a new version is available, a dialog shows what changed and offers to install it; you can also check at any time from Help → Check for updates. Your saved connections, analyses, query history, and settings are preserved across upgrades.

Installed in Program Files? If the app was installed with administrator rights (for example into C:\Program Files), the update dialog shows a shield icon. Click it and Windows asks for permission once; the update installs and the app reopens normally. If you decline, nothing changes and you keep working.

Managed by IT? Organizations that roll out Data Collage centrally can turn auto-update off by setting the registry value below to 1 (the same value under HKEY_CURRENT_USER is also honored). The app then skips the startup check and the Help-menu check, and shows a short “updates are managed by your organization” note instead.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Newarc Consulting\Data Collage\DisableAutoUpdate  (DWORD) = 1

You can always fall back to downloading the latest installer from Newarc and running it over your existing installation. See the release notes for what’s new in each version.