I have the colonel's new rom installed, which is my first exposure to smartskey. I have always used aeb button plus to remap things, it seems easier to use since it has a GUI on the phone instead of needing to edit the .ini file for smartskey.

can anyone weigh in on the pros and cons of both?

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ppc6700 (R.I.P. 6600)
Sprint

I haven't used Button Plus, but it looks like it has many more features/options.
What I like about Smartskey (which I've renamed what I think the author meant to call it: SmartKeys) is that it is very small, fairly easy to configure and free!

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Peace ~ Trident
Using my own custom WM6.5 ROMGO GATORS! NCAA National Champs x3~ Football & Basketball(x2)!

smartkey is different from AEbutton plus. I use both. I use Smartkey so when I'm in phone screen, I can press up to pull up speed dial and press down to pull up call history.
AEButton plus is great though

they don't conflict with each other?

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ppc6700 (R.I.P. 6600)
Sprint

When I click on SmartsKey in Programs all I get is a "Close SmartSKey?" screen that pops up. Is there a configuration .exe somewhere else?

That means the program is already running. After you run it the first time, it automatically restats after a soft reset.

There is a smartskey.ini file in the same directory as the program. Use it to configure the program.