Skip to content

The shareable installer, in plain terms

Technical version: ../technical/packaging.md

WorkWingman is really three programs working together: a small window frame (Electron), the web-style screens you actually see (Angular), and a quiet helper doing the real work in the background (the .NET API). On a developer's machine you'd need special tools installed to run all three. That's fine for us, but useless for a friend who just wants to try the app.

So we wrap all three into one installer file — WorkWingman-Setup-<version>.exe. You give someone that single file, they double-click it, and they have a working app. They do not need to install .NET, Node.js, or anything else. The installer carries its own copy of everything, including the piece of the .NET "engine" the helper needs to run. Think of it like a food truck: instead of asking the customer to own a kitchen, the truck brings the whole kitchen with it.

What happens when someone runs it

  1. They double-click WorkWingman-Setup-<version>.exe (or it can install silently in the background). It installs just for that user — no "are you an administrator?" pop-up.
  2. It puts the app in their own app folder and adds a desktop and Start-menu shortcut named WorkWingman.
  3. When they open WorkWingman, it quietly starts the background helper, waits for it to be ready, then shows the app's screens.

The safety design is unchanged: the helper only listens to this computer (never the internet), and it hands out a fresh secret "password" each time it starts that only the app itself can read. A random web page can't sneak in.

How we build it

We use a tool called electron-builder that knows how to bundle an Electron app into a Windows installer. We point it at three things — the window frame, the finished screens, and the self-contained helper — and it produces the single .exe. There's a placeholder app icon for now (a simple colored square) that we'll swap for real branding later. We do not digitally "sign" the installer with a paid certificate, so Windows may show a "publisher unknown" notice the first time — that's expected for an early build.

Trying it on your own machine

  • Install: double-click the file, or run it with a /S switch to install silently.
  • Run: open WorkWingman from the Start menu or desktop shortcut. Give it a moment on first launch while the helper wakes up.
  • Remove it: use "Uninstall WorkWingman" or Windows Settings → Apps, like any other program.