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electron/docs/tutorial/application-distribution.md
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Samuel Attard 1cf98129e4 feat: capture __fastfail crashes on Windows via a WER helper module (#53802)
* feat: capture __fastfail crashes on Windows via a WER helper module

Crashes raised through __fastfail (STATUS_STACK_BUFFER_OVERRUN: /GS
failures, CFG violations, UCRT abort()) never reach crashpad's in-process
exception filter, so they produced no minidump. Build electron_wer.dll, a
Windows Error Reporting runtime exception helper wrapping crashpad's
crashpad_wer_handler, ship it next to the executable, return its path from
ElectronCrashReporterClient::GetWerRuntimeExceptionModule() so crashpad
registers it in every process, and list it under the current user's
RuntimeExceptionHelperModules key from crashReporter.start() so Windows
will load it without installer changes.

Closes #40363.

* fix: keep WER active in libuv processes and scope helper pruning

libuv's uv_init sets SEM_NOGPFAULTERRORBOX, which stops Windows Error
Reporting from invoking runtime exception helpers, and Electron only
cleared it in the browser process. Clear it in every process type (as
Chromium does) and in ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE children after crashpad init,
so __fastfail in Node-integrated renderers, utility processes and workers
reaches electron_wer.dll; add a node-integrated renderer variant of the
spec. Only prune stale RuntimeExceptionHelperModules entries that are
siblings under this app's install root, so crashReporter.start() never
probes other apps' (possibly remote) paths.

* feat: look up the WER helper as <exe name>_wer.dll

Name the helper after the executable so packagers that rename electron.exe
rename the DLL alongside it (myapp.exe -> myapp_wer.dll); the GN output name
is derived from electron_project_name and the docs say so.

* fix: register the WER helper without probing the disk

GetWerRuntimeExceptionModule() runs in sandboxed child processes too, where
the PathExists() check fails and skipped registration (CI: the sandboxed
renderer __fastfail spec got no dump while the unsandboxed one did). Match
Chrome and return the path unconditionally; the browser still checks the
file exists before listing it in the registry.

* fix: let WER run for sandboxed child processes once crashpad is installed

The sandbox job starts children with SEM_NOGPFAULTERRORBOX
(JOB_OBJECT_LIMIT_DIE_ON_UNHANDLED_EXCEPTION), so the WER helper was never
invoked for a sandboxed renderer's __fastfail. Clear the flag in child
processes right after crashpad initialization.

* refactor: ship crashpad's crashpad_wer.dll as the WER helper

Copy the upstream crashpad_wer loadable module to <exe name>_wer.dll instead
of building a duplicate, keep crashpad_wer.dll itself out of dist.zip, and
resolve the helper's directory from base::DIR_ASSETS (the executable's
directory by default) so apps that version their resources can relocate it.
2026-09-11 23:12:48 -04:00

4.3 KiB

title, description, slug, hide_title
title description slug hide_title
Application Packaging To distribute your app with Electron, you need to package and rebrand it. To do this, you can either use specialized tooling or manual approaches. application-distribution false

To distribute your app with Electron, you need to package and rebrand it. To do this, you can either use specialized tooling or manual approaches.

With tooling

There are a couple tools out there that exist to package and distribute your Electron app. We recommend using Electron Forge. You can check out its documentation directly, or refer to the Packaging and Distribution part of the Electron tutorial.

Manual packaging

If you prefer the manual approach, there are 2 ways to distribute your application:

  • With prebuilt binaries
  • With an app source code archive

With prebuilt binaries

To distribute your app manually, you need to download Electron's prebuilt binaries. Next, the folder containing your app should be named app and placed in Electron's resources directory as shown in the following examples.

:::note The location of Electron's prebuilt binaries is indicated with electron/ in the examples below. :::

electron/Electron.app/Contents/Resources/app/
├── package.json
├── main.js
└── index.html
electron/resources/app
├── package.json
├── main.js
└── index.html

Then execute Electron.app on macOS, electron on Linux, or electron.exe on Windows, and Electron will start as your app. The electron directory will then be your distribution to deliver to users.

With an app source code archive (asar)

Instead of shipping your app by copying all of its source files, you can package your app into an asar archive to improve the performance of reading files on platforms like Windows, if you are not already using a bundler such as Parcel or Webpack.

To use an asar archive to replace the app folder, you need to rename the archive to app.asar, and put it under Electron's resources directory like below, and Electron will then try to read the archive and start from it.

electron/Electron.app/Contents/Resources/
└── app.asar
electron/resources/
└── app.asar

You can find more details on how to use asar in the electron/asar repository.

Rebranding with downloaded binaries

After bundling your app into Electron, you will want to rebrand Electron before distributing it to users.

  • Windows: You can rename electron.exe to any name you like, and edit its icon and other information with tools like rcedit. Rename electron_wer.dll to match (for example myapp_wer.dll next to myapp.exe) so the crash reporter can still capture fail-fast crashes.

  • Linux: You can rename the electron executable to any name you like.

  • macOS: You can rename Electron.app to any name you want, and you also have to rename the CFBundleDisplayName, CFBundleIdentifier and CFBundleName fields in the following files:

    • Electron.app/Contents/Info.plist
    • Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper.app/Contents/Info.plist

    You can also rename the helper app to avoid showing Electron Helper in the Activity Monitor, but make sure you have renamed the helper app's executable file's name.

    The structure of a renamed app would be like:

MyApp.app/Contents
├── Info.plist
├── MacOS/
│   └── MyApp
└── Frameworks/
    └── MyApp Helper.app
        ├── Info.plist
        └── MacOS/
            └── MyApp Helper

:::note

it is also possible to rebrand Electron by changing the product name and building it from source. To do this you need to set the build argument corresponding to the product name (electron_product_name = "YourProductName") in the args.gn file and rebuild.

Keep in mind this is not recommended as setting up the environment to compile from source is not trivial and takes significant time.

:::