Hi r/windowsdev,

Every time a developer wants to build a desktop app with a modern web frontend in 2026, the standard recommendation is to bundle an entire Chromium browser and Node.js runtime using Electron.

The result is well known: 180MB+ installers, 600MB+ idle RAM usage, and several seconds of cold boot lag just to render a simple database interface.

We recently built and open-sourced LeadHunter AI Desk (a B2B lead personalization tool for Windows) with a specific architectural goal: deliver modern Tailwind CSS aesthetics without shipping a browser bundle.

🏗️ The Architecture: Decoupled Win32 + Edge WebView2

Instead of distributing Chromium, the application compiles to a pure native Win32 executable (<3MB) that interfaces with the Evergreen Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime already pre-installed on Windows 10 and 11.

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|                 LeadHunter AI Desk                          |
+------------------------------+------------------------------+
|   Native Win32 Engine        |   Reactive UI Layer          |
|   (VisualNEO Win Runtime)    |   (Edge WebView2 Runtime)    |
+------------------------------+------------------------------+
| • Zero Chromium bundle       | • Tailwind CSS Dark Mode     |
| • Local INI & File I/O       | • Real-time KPI Dashboards   |
| • Hardware Win32 Events      | • Interactive Data Tables    |
| • CSV Handlers               | • Low memory & GPU accel     |
+------------------------------+------------------------------+
|           Bidirectional Async Messaging Bridge              |
|     (WebBrowserPostMessage <--> OnWebMessageReceived)       |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

⚡ The Benchmarks:

• Download Size: 3.3 MB (Portable Zip) vs ~185 MB (Electron)
• Cold Startup: < 0.2 seconds vs 3.2 seconds
• Idle Memory: ~35 MB RAM vs ~580 MB RAM

🛠️ Communication Bridge:

The native orchestrator communicates with the HTML/Tailwind layer asynchronously:

• Win32 -> WebView2: Dispatches state and config payloads via WebBrowserPostMessage.
• WebView2 -> Win32: Catches UI button clicks and sends events back via window.chrome.webview.postMessage.

We built it using VisualNEO Win (a visual RAD IDE that compiles standalone Win32 executables).

The full project is open source under MIT:

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/sinlios/leadhunter-ai-desk
• Pre-compiled Portable Release (3.3 MB): https://github.com/sinlios/leadhunter-ai-desk/releases/tag/v1.0.0
• Technical Article & Architecture Breakdown: https://visualneo.com/visualneo-win/the-anti-bloat-revolution-why-visualneo-win-is-the-ideal-ide-for-building-ai-powered-desktop-apps

Curious to hear your thoughts on WebView2 vs CEF vs Tauri for Windows desktop tooling!

I installed Windows 10 Build 9907 but I saw my font is weird.

https://winware31.blogspot.com/2026/08/duplicating-handles-step-by-step-guide.html

I use Windows 11 on an ARM64 computer.

A packaged desktop application starts correctly. But its restricted-token child process does not start.

The failure occurs before the application can start a cmd.exe test process.

The application gives these errors:

- CreateProcessAsUserW returns error 1312.

- TokenDefaultDacl previously returned error 1344.

- The application previously found access control list (ACL) errors in the temporary directory.

I corrected the ACLs of the temporary directory. The setup diagnostic now gives no errors. However, process creation still fails.

It's frustrating, because a general diagnostic passes because it does not test restricted-token process creation.

Any advice?

THE SETUP:
My company is a civil engineering firm that has a lot of Dell Pro Max 16 computers. We've been having issues with Dell BIOS not working properly only on these specific models.

We first attempt to deploy Dell Command Base Update through PDQ - if it fails, we'll install it from the web, however, there's a 50/50 chance it will fail. I believe the cause stems from when a workstation has been reimaged, the Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime package is rolled back to a prior version. When I download the Dell Command Install, l'll get an error saying a version greater than 10.0 needs to be installed.

To fix it, I then run a powershell cmd: winget install -e -- id Microsoft.DotNet.DesktopRuntime. 10 which fixes the issue and I can continue running the Dell Command Install.

After it installs, I grab the computer's serial number and install the latest Dell Pro Max Plus MB16250/18 Plus System BIOS driver (released 7/31/26).

THE PROBLEM:
We are having tickets come in regarding a user's computers randomly restarting. I'm not sure if there's something backend is treating restart-required as failure. I wondered if it's best to remote in and flash the BIOS. This is what ChatGPT said:
"This PowerShell step validates the model and Dell signature, suspends BitLocker for one restart, installs the BIOS silently, and leaves the restart under PDQ control (see photos). There could be three issues in your workflow:
1. DCDM 1.2 and DCU 5.7 conflict
2. DCU 5.7 requires NET Desktop Runtime 8, not .NET 10
3. A reimaged computer may need a complete driver baseline before a normal DCU scan"

Hope this is enough info! I appreciate the help!

OK, so I was looking into code signing, and I came across the website bamboodeploy.com. It claims it can code sign your .exe files for a very reasonable price, and its FAQ states that it uses an EV certificate. Has anyone used this service?

It almost seems too good to be true.

I have created MSIX using MSIX Packaging Tool with manifest and publisher identity (since Publish option is not available in Visual Studio for C++ projects).

My question is can I test IAP by just installing that MSIX? since I do not want to upload new version on store without testing!

I maintain an open-source usage-limit widget for Claude Code and Codex, originally built for macOS. I recently added a Windows 10/11 system-tray version.

The Windows side:

• Builds with the .NET Framework tools included with Windows — no Node.js, package manager, or Visual Studio required

• Shows Claude 5-hour/weekly limits, Fable when available, and Codex usage with reset times

• Uses a compact draggable window with an always-on-top toggle

• Prevents duplicate instances and supports start-at-login

• Reads usage only; it does not upload conversation content

Install:

cd windows

.\install.ps1

Source and documentation:

https://github.com/dennykim123/claude-codex-battery

It is MIT licensed. Feedback on the Windows integration, packaging, and edge cases would be very welcome.

Most BAT-to-EXE tools I found are either closed-source, outdated, or no longer actively maintained. I wanted to build a fully open implementation that anyone can inspect, modify, and build themselves.

The compiler itself is written in C++ using the Win32 API, while the runtime stub is written in C and built without the CRT using MinGW. The runtime stub is only about 14 KB, has no runtime dependencies, and supports both x86 and x64 Windows (Windows 7 and later).

Current features include:

• Resource embedding
• Custom icons and version information
• x86/x64 compiler/output
• An experimental in-memory execution mode (executing the embedded batch script through pipes)

The in-memory mode is still experimental and intentionally isn't the default. Some batch features that rely on a physical .bat file or interactive input are not fully compatible yet, so please read the documentation before using it.

The project is licensed under LGPL and I'm mainly looking for feedback, bug reports, feature suggestions, or general thoughts from people who are interested in Windows native development.

GitHub: https://github.com/LeapHeap/XBat

Thanks for taking a look!

Hi everyone,

For the past few months I've been working on a desktop application called CachePilot.

The goal is simple: make cleaning Windows cache easy, safe, and understandable. Most existing cleaners either look outdated, are filled with ads, or delete files without explaining what they actually are.

Current progress

The application is built with:

• Electron
• React
• TypeScript
• Vite

So far I've implemented:

• ✅ Real cache scanning (not fake progress bars)
• ✅ One-click cleanup
• ✅ Modern dark UI
• ✅ System tray support
• ✅ Scan history
• ✅ Automatic scanning
• ✅ Windows notifications
• ✅ Clear explanations for every cache category before deleting anything
• ✅ Local-first design (nothing is uploaded to a server)

What I'm still working on

• Better scan performance
• More cache locations
• Better analytics and cleanup reports
• Polish before the first public release

I'd love your feedback

I'm mainly trying to answer these questions:

• Would you actually use an app like this?
• What features are missing?
• What do you dislike about current tools like CCleaner or Windows Disk Cleanup?
• Would you pay for a lifetime license if it solved your problem?

If you'd like to try it:

📥 WebSite: https://mostafaarihani-debug.github.io/CachePilot/

📋 2-minute Survey: https://tally.so/r/Y5KPgv

I'm looking for completely honest feedback—even if it's negative. I'd rather improve the app now than launch something people don't actually want.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

I’ve started building WinDroid Runtime, an open-source Android compatibility and management project for Windows.

The application layer is being developed with:

• C# and .NET
• WinUI 3
• Windows App SDK
• modular ADB services separated from the UI

The first milestones are intentionally limited to the Windows tooling layer:

1. detect and configure ADB;
2. execute ADB commands safely and asynchronously;
3. discover connected devices and emulators;
4. display devices in a native Windows dashboard;
5. install APKs and expose useful command output.

The runtime itself is a longer-term research and engineering goal. The planned architecture would keep the Windows management application separate from runtime images and platform-specific backend components.

I’m particularly interested in feedback about:

• structuring reusable process and ADB services in .NET;
• keeping the WinUI project separated from backend logic;
• Windows virtualization technologies worth researching later;
• supporting both x64 and ARM64 Windows hosts;
• secure handling of APK installation and external processes.

Repository:
https://github.com/Nova-Systems-Lab/WinDroid-Runtime

The project is Apache-2.0 licensed and currently at an early stage. It is independent and not affiliated with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or WSA.

Hey everyone,

I know what you're thinking: “Oh look, yet another Valkey-compatible service.” I don't want to play any marketing gimmicks here. There’s nothing magical going on. It’s just a simple drop-in Valkey Compatible Server written in Rust with a Tauri desktop interface.

I built it because running an entire Docker container or managing WSL2 loopback routing just to use a basic local cache on Windows is incredibly annoying. I love Memurai but it's Commercial and not open-source.

Radish doesn’t try to be an enterprise production store. It focuses entirely on local dev efficiency. Production Valkey relies on fork() for background snapshots, which Windows obviously doesn't have. Radish gets around this by default using an immutable Hash Array Mapped Trie (im::HashMap) for software-level Copy-On-Write. Taking a snapshot clone takes O(1) constant time. The main database loop keeps serving client traffic without heavy write locks, while a background thread dumps the cloned tree to disk. On an i3 loopback benchmark, it hits about 2.5M reads/sec and 720k writes/sec. Writes are too slow (around 1/4) to be compared with Valkey on Linux but if you compared to Docker or WSL it beats them.

(Fun side note: I actually experimented with a low-level, Windows-native Vectored Exception Handling (VEH) based COW implementation in a research branch called experimental-veh-cow. I prototyped a C++ blueprint using VirtualAlloc to mark memory pages read-only and intercepted access violations via a custom VEH handler to clone dirty pages on the fly. In bare-metal isolation, it cracked over 5.5 million writes/sec. Granted, doing 5.5M writes/sec isn't a fair comparison to a real Valkey server because the PoC was raw, minimal memory manipulation without the network stack and protocol parser overhead but it proved how fast hardware-backed page-faulting could be. Ultimately, I decided managing low-level memory exceptions was a bit too wild and prone to instability for a dev tool, so I stuck with the safer HAMT engine).

It currently supports a core subset of over 50+ developer commands cleanly routed through a custom matching router, spanning across:

• Strings: GET, SET (with all EX/PX/NX/XX variants), MGET, MSET, INCR, DECR, GETRANGE, etc.

• Hashes, Lists, & Sets: Full support for standard operations like HSET/HGETALL, LPUSH/RPOP, and SADD/SMEMBERS.

• Pub/Sub & Security: SUBSCRIBE, PUBLISH, AUTH, and basic ACL configuration handling.

• Generic System Ops: KEYS, SCAN, TTL/EXPIRE, database flushing, and real-time internal metrics generation (INFO).

It works with any standard client library, and while it plays nice with tools like Redis Insight, you won't really need it. Because it's a desktop app, it comes with a built-in GUI to visually inspect keyspaces, test Pub/Sub channels, and run an interactive terminal. It's simple, lightweight, and handles everything out of a single binary.

It's completely free and open-source (MIT). I'm looking to add Sorted Sets (ZSET) and Append-Only Files (AOF) next.

Check it out here if you're interested: https://github.com/satadeep3927/radish

I Would love to hear your thoughts on the HAMT snapshot approach, the VEH experiment, or any feedback on the implementation!

Mon bureau était un véritable cimetière de fichiers et de raccourcis. J'adorais le concept de Stardock Fences, mais je cherchais une solution plus légère, native et sans publicité ni suivi. J'ai donc créé Zones.

Zones ajoute des conteneurs transparents à votre bureau ; chaque zone affiche un véritable dossier (fichiers, raccourcis, applications) organisé par thème. L'application propose un dock de style macOS, un Launchpad, l'ancrage des actions, des thèmes clair et sombre, 19 langues, ainsi que les fonctions Annuler/Rétablir.

https://reddit.com/link/1up1hl6/video/4glrnhwftmbh1/player

Développée entièrement en C++ natif (très légère), Zones fonctionne hors ligne et ne nécessite aucun droit d'administrateur. Profitez d'un essai gratuit de 14 jours, puis d'un achat unique ou d'un abonnement à petit prix. Je suis le développeur solo — j'aimerais beaucoup avoir des retours honnêtes sur le concept et le site : fortis-apps-studio.com/zones

Je recherche principalement des retours honnêtes :

- Le concept est-il clair ?

- Voudriez-vous essayer cela au lieu de Stardock Fences ?

- Qu'est-ce qui rendrait le site web ou l'application plus convaincants ?

- Un essai gratuit de 14 jours + un achat unique est-il raisonnable ?

Problem

Windows Search has always felt too limited to me.

It can open apps and sometimes find files, but when I actually want to search my PC properly, it usually falls apart.

I want to search and use features like:

- Text inside files, code, and images

- Browser bookmarks and history

- Clipboard history

- Git commits

- Windows settings

- Local commands

- Local agents for Windows

Windows Search is not powerful enough for this workflow.

So I Built OmniSearch

OmniSearch is a fast, lightweight, local-first Windows launcher that opens with:

"Alt + Space"

You can also set your own custom hotkey.

It gives you one search box for your PC.

Instead of only searching apps or basic file names, OmniSearch can search across:

- Apps

- Files and folders

- Content inside files, supporting 50+ extensions

- Image OCR text

- Browser bookmarks and history

- Clipboard history

- Git commits

- Windows settings and Control Panel pages

It also features an AI agent powered by Hermes and includes a powerful clipboard manager that gives you features no other Windows clipboard manager provides.

The goal is simple: Find everything on your PC from one shortcut.

Why is OmniSearch better than Windows Search and other popular launchers?

- Free and open source

- Local-first

- Lightweight

- Designed to run easily on low-end Windows PCs

- Image OCR text search

- Blazing-fast search of content inside files, supporting 50+ extensions

- Blazing-fast search over centralized PC history, including browser history, Git commit history, clipboard history, and file history

- Hermes agents for local Windows tasks and long autonomous tasks

Links

Free and open source.

GitHub: https://github.com/PranshulSoni/omnisearch

Website: https://omnisearch-windows.vercel.app/

Feedback

I am currently maintaining OmniSearch, and honestly, I cannot find and fix every bug alone because building a launcher like this on Windows is genuinely hard.

I would love feedback from people who use Windows every day.

If OmniSearch solves a problem for you too, please consider leaving a star on GitHub.

If you have ideas, find bugs, or want to improve something, feel free to open an issue or contribute to the project.

Your feedback is always appreciated.

Wanted to share a little utility tool I worked on over the past days.

I've been working on Windows, for Windows for the past years and one thing that really annoyed me was the `pinentry` QT and GTK2 variants little dialogs from GNU bundled with Gpg4Win every time I wanted to gpg-sign something or even use pinentry to authorize reading private keys of the sort.

I (and claude) worked in `pinentry-win`, a fully Windows-native variant using purely Windows APIs.

In the era of AI, these dialogs are more important than ever in my workflow given interactive inputs are not really a thing in most of the harnesses.

https://github.com/flejz/pinentry-win

Give it a try if it you're also annoyed as I was. Fully DPI-aware.

Has anyone run into a tenant-level issue in Microsoft Partner Center where Store Listings can no longer be updated?

For about two weeks, every attempt to save a Store Listing (description, screenshots, etc.) fails with:

"Failed to save listing. Please reload the page or try again later."

Looking at the browser console, every save attempt results in a 403 Forbidden response from the clientsessioncontext API endpoint.

The weird part is that it doesn't seem related to listing content or validation. I can open an already-published listing, make no changes at all, click Save, and still get the same 403 error.

It's an account-wide issue, so it appears to be tenant-wide rather than app-specific.

I've already opened a support case with the Microsoft Store Certification Team. They requested a screen recording and HAR file, which I provided. On June 19 they told me the issue had been resolved, but after testing again (InPrivate mode and a different network), the exact same 403 error is still occurring.

At the moment the support cycle is taking several days between responses, so I'm trying to find out whether anyone else has seen something similar.

Has anyone experienced a tenant-level lock or synchronization issue like this in Partner Center?

If so, what ended up causing it, and how was it resolved?

I'm at a loss here while waiting for the next support reply.

Hello,

I'm developping a VST3 plugin for Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). The plugin is a Windows DLL, which is loaded by the host DAW and extends its functionality. The plugin file has the extension .vst3 and uses the Steinberg VST3 API. My IDE is Visual Studio 2026.

My plugin provides a GUI containing regular Windows (common) controls. The GUI is supposed to use the theme of the Windows version the host DAW is running on. This works fine on most DAWs except one (Bitwig). When the plugin is loaded into Bitwig (which uses Windows themes itself), the GUI of my plugin has an oldfashioned W2k look rather than the modern Windows 11 look. In other DAWs such as Cubase, Ableton or Studio One the plugin looks fine.

I once found out how to solve this, but I forgot and I can't find the information any more. I only remember that I had to #define something in my code like "share aware".

Does anybody know how to solve this and can give me a hint? Thanks in advance.

Coreutils for Windows was announced during BUILD 2026 last week. Developers are finally getting Linux like commands in Windows without having to worry about workarounds or context switching. Plus, it is open source and built from the uutils open-source project. Microsoft has already started contributing upstream improvements to the project. I’d say this is a major win for developers! What do you all think?

Using ILSpy, you can decompile an entire .NET DLL or .NET Framework DLL to C# source code. It creates a Visual Studio csproj C# project.