Criticly windows version is ready
Go hiking for 4+ hours after long time pause. I become energetic again.
It took me only one day to build a windows version. This is the benefit of electron.
1. started a windows vm in AWS for build and test (free tier).
2. fixed the bugs, especially the native dependences I locked in package lock file.
Added windows support in github ci.
Remove windows waitlist in landing page.
Update /download api to support windows exe, detecting both platform(os) and arch in frontend.
Next:
Add a digital cert to fix Windows Defender Warning for no digital sigend exe file.
Love seeing the speed and clarity here — shipping a Windows version in a day shows great iteration discipline. A few thoughts from similar Electron builds:
1️⃣ AWS VM for testing – smart move for free-tier testing. If you layer in a snapshot system before each major fix, you can rollback faster when dependency issues pop.
2️⃣ Package lock dependency fixes – locking native deps is crucial. Might also consider automated dependency diff checks in CI so platform-specific regressions catch early.
3️⃣ Digital certificate next step – huge for trust. Optional tip: code-signing can also reduce false positives on anti-virus heuristics, especially for early adopters who might be wary of unsigned executables.
Curious — did you benchmark exe startup speed vs mac/linux builds? Small perf differences can massively affect first impressions.
I haven’t benchmarked startup time yet, but from quick tests the EXE feels a little slower to boot than macOS (probably due to Electron’s initial DLL load). But since Criticly is an app staying on system tray, the main loop's speed: select text -> trigger commands -> showing result is more important :)