Installation

The original download was a 3.86gb folder, named "il-2_sturmovik_cod".
In there we have the "setup.exe" file which we run in order to start things up.

Of course Steam wouldn't make things easy and the moment the setup started it just could not connect to Steam!!!
I spend half an hour trying to connect, changed my password, locked my kids to their room and still nothing.
Steam would recognize a wrong password, but when I inserted the right one it would just get me back to the login screen requesting the password again.
In the end it popped a message that for security reasons (or something like that) I'd had to get a code from an email that they sent me and insert it before I move on. At last it worked, but yes I had to spend half an hour for no reason. Steam it is :)

And then the installation started and to be honest I was amazed to realise that it took shorter time than what IL-2/1946 takes to install!
Was it a good sign or not, that was the real question :)
A rather small file of 3.8gb and a short installation time made me think whether this game is not that "big" as we always hoped and believed.
You know, most of us who are in this community since forever think of this game as the Holy Graal and seeing it "small" can make you wonder if there's gold here or not.
On the other hand, programming is not about size. Good programming should be as short as possible and for such a game the "core" folder with only 400mb seems like good work.
One more thing. Clod has less maps and planes than 1946, therefore much less big files that come with maps and planes ;-)

During the installation it also checks/installs the typical DirectX and Microsoft's Client Redistr. parts, so we can run the game.
Of course this means that you have to restart the game when the installation finishes, so you can have these, and eventually the game, working!!! So...please don't cry if the game won't start if you didn't restart.

Right after the restart Steam should update the game automatically (thank God they have fast servers, so no big wait) and that's all, you're good to go!