NPM module that builds Windows installers for Electron apps using Squirrel.
npm install --save-dev electron-winstallerRequire the package:
const electronInstaller = require('electron-winstaller');Then do a build like so..
try {
await electronInstaller.createWindowsInstaller({
appDirectory: '/tmp/build/my-app-64',
outputDirectory: '/tmp/build/installer64',
authors: 'My App Inc.',
exe: 'myapp.exe'
});
console.log('It worked!');
} catch (e) {
console.log(`No dice: ${e.message}`);
}After running you will have an .nupkg, a
RELEASES file, and a .exe installer file in the outputDirectory folder
for each multi task target given under the config entry.
There are several configuration settings supported:
For development / internal use, creating installers without a signature is okay, but for a production app you need to sign your application. Internet Explorer's SmartScreen filter will block your app from being downloaded, and many anti-virus vendors will consider your app as malware unless you obtain a valid cert.
Any certificate valid for "Authenticode Code Signing" will work here, but if you get the right kind of code certificate, you can also opt-in to Windows Error Reporting. This MSDN page has the latest links on where to get a WER-compatible certificate. The "Standard Code Signing" certificate is sufficient for this purpose.
Squirrel will spawn your app with command line flags on first run, updates, and uninstalls. it is very important that your app handle these events as early as possible, and quit immediately after handling them. Squirrel will give your app a short amount of time (~15sec) to apply these operations and quit.
The electron-squirrel-startup module will handle
the most common events for you, such as managing desktop shortcuts. Add the following to the top
of your main.js and you're good to go:
if (require('electron-squirrel-startup')) return;You should handle these events in your app's main entry point with something
such as:
const app = require('app');
// this should be placed at top of main.js to handle setup events quickly
if (handleSquirrelEvent()) {
// squirrel event handled and app will exit in 1000ms, so don't do anything else
return;
}
function handleSquirrelEvent() {
if (process.argv.length === 1) {
return false;
}
const ChildProcess = require('child_process');
const path = require('path');
const appFolder = path.resolve(process.execPath, '..');
const rootAtomFolder = path.resolve(appFolder, '..');
const updateDotExe = path.resolve(path.join(rootAtomFolder, 'Update.exe'));
const exeName = path.basename(process.execPath);
const spawn = function(command, args) {
let spawnedProcess, error;
try {
spawnedProcess = ChildProcess.spawn(command, args, {detached: true});
} catch (error) {}
return spawnedProcess;
};
const spawnUpdate = function(args) {
return spawn(updateDotExe, args);
};
const squirrelEvent = process.argv[1];
switch (squirrelEvent) {
case '--squirrel-install':
case '--squirrel-updated':
// Optionally do things such as:
// - Add your .exe to the PATH
// - Write to the registry for things like file associations and
// explorer context menus
// Install desktop and start menu shortcuts
spawnUpdate(['--createShortcut', exeName]);
setTimeout(app.quit, 1000);
return true;
case '--squirrel-uninstall':
// Undo anything you did in the --squirrel-install and
// --squirrel-updated handlers
// Remove desktop and start menu shortcuts
spawnUpdate(['--removeShortcut', exeName]);
setTimeout(app.quit, 1000);
return true;
case '--squirrel-obsolete':
// This is called on the outgoing version of your app before
// we update to the new version - it's the opposite of
// --squirrel-updated
app.quit();
return true;
}
};Notice that the first time the installer launches your app, your app will see a --squirrel-firstrun flag. This allows you to do things like showing up a splash screen or presenting a settings UI. Another thing to be aware of is that, since the app is spawned by squirrel and squirrel acquires a file lock during installation, you won't be able to successfully check for app updates till a few seconds later when squirrel releases the lock.
Advanced codesigning with @electron/windows-sign
This package supports two different ways to codesign your application and the installer:
-
Modern: By passing a
windowsSignoption, which will be passed to @electron/windows-sign. This method allows full customization of the code-signing process - and supports more complicated scenarios like cloud-hosted EV certificates, custom sign pipelines, and per-file overrides. It also supports all existing "simple" codesigning scenarios, including just passing a certificate file and password. Please see https://github.com/electron/windows-sign for all possible configuration options.When passing
windowsSign, do not pass any other available parameters at the top level (likecertificateFile,certificatePassword, orsignWithParams). -
Legacy: By passing the top-level settings (
certificateFile,certificatePassword, andsignWithParams). For simple codesigning scenarios, there's no reason not to use this method - it'll work just as fine as the modern method.
You can get debug messages from this package by running with the environment variable DEBUG=electron-windows-installer:main e.g.
DEBUG=electron-windows-installer:main node tasks/electron-winstaller.js