130 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
130 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
# Build Instructions (Windows)
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Follow the guidelines below for building **Electron itself** on Windows, for the purposes of creating custom Electron binaries. For bundling and distributing your app code with the prebuilt Electron binaries, see the [application distribution][application-distribution] guide.
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[application-distribution]: ../tutorial/application-distribution.md
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## Prerequisites
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* Windows 10 / Server 2012 R2 or higher
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* Visual Studio 2017 15.7.2 or higher - [download VS 2019 Community Edition for
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free](https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/)
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* See [the Chromium build documentation](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/windows_build_instructions.md#visual-studio) for more details on which Visual Studio
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components are required.
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* If your Visual Studio is installed in a directory other than the default, you'll need to
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set a few environment variables to point the toolchains to your installation path.
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* `vs2019_install = DRIVE:\path\to\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community`, replacing `2019` and `Community` with your installed versions and replacing `DRIVE:` with the drive that Visual Studio is on. Often, this will be `C:`.
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* `WINDOWSSDKDIR = DRIVE:\path\to\Windows Kits\10`, replacing `DRIVE:` with the drive that Windows Kits is on. Often, this will be `C:`.
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* [Python for Windows (pywin32) Extensions](https://pypi.org/project/pywin32/#files)
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is also needed in order to run the build process.
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* [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/download/)
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* [Git](https://git-scm.com)
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* Debugging Tools for Windows of Windows SDK 10.0.15063.468 if you plan on
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creating a full distribution since `symstore.exe` is used for creating a symbol
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store from `.pdb` files.
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* Different versions of the SDK can be installed side by side. To install the
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SDK, open Visual Studio Installer, select
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`Modify` → `Individual Components`, scroll down and select the appropriate
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Windows SDK to install. Another option would be to look at the
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[Windows SDK and emulator archive](https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/sdk-archive)
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and download the standalone version of the SDK respectively.
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* The SDK Debugging Tools must also be installed. If the Windows 10 SDK was installed
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via the Visual Studio installer, then they can be installed by going to:
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`Control Panel` → `Programs` → `Programs and Features` → Select the "Windows Software Development Kit" →
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`Change` → `Change` → Check "Debugging Tools For Windows" → `Change`.
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Or, you can download the standalone SDK installer and use it to install the Debugging Tools.
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If you don't currently have a Windows installation,
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[dev.microsoftedge.com](https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/)
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has timebombed versions of Windows that you can use to build Electron.
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Building Electron is done entirely with command-line scripts and cannot be done
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with Visual Studio. You can develop Electron with any editor but support for
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building with Visual Studio will come in the future.
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**Note:** Even though Visual Studio is not used for building, it's still
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**required** because we need the build toolchains it provides.
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## Exclude source tree from Windows Security
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Windows Security doesn't like one of the files in the Chromium source code
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(see https://crbug.com/441184), so it will constantly delete it, causing `gclient sync` issues.
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You can exclude the source tree from being monitored by Windows Security by
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[following these instructions](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/add-an-exclusion-to-windows-security-811816c0-4dfd-af4a-47e4-c301afe13b26).
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## Building
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See [Build Instructions: GN](build-instructions-gn.md)
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## 32bit Build
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To build for the 32bit target, you need to pass `target_cpu = "x86"` as a GN
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arg. You can build the 32bit target alongside the 64bit target by using a
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different output directory for GN, e.g. `out/Release-x86`, with different
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arguments.
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```powershell
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$ gn gen out/Release-x86 --args="import(\"//electron/build/args/release.gn\") target_cpu=\"x86\""
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```
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The other building steps are exactly the same.
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## Visual Studio project
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To generate a Visual Studio project, you can pass the `--ide=vs2017` parameter
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to `gn gen`:
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```powershell
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$ gn gen out/Testing --ide=vs2017
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```
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## Troubleshooting
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### Command xxxx not found
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If you encountered an error like `Command xxxx not found`, you may try to use
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the `VS2015 Command Prompt` console to execute the build scripts.
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### Fatal internal compiler error: C1001
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Make sure you have the latest Visual Studio update installed.
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### LNK1181: cannot open input file 'kernel32.lib'
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Try reinstalling 32bit Node.js.
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### Error: ENOENT, stat 'C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\npm'
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Creating that directory [should fix the problem](https://stackoverflow.com/a/25095327/102704):
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```powershell
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$ mkdir ~\AppData\Roaming\npm
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```
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### node-gyp is not recognized as an internal or external command
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You may get this error if you are using Git Bash for building, you should use
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PowerShell or VS2015 Command Prompt instead.
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### cannot create directory at '...': Filename too long
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node.js has some [extremely long pathnames](https://github.com/electron/node/tree/electron/deps/npm/node_modules/libnpx/node_modules/yargs/node_modules/read-pkg-up/node_modules/read-pkg/node_modules/load-json-file/node_modules/parse-json/node_modules/error-ex/node_modules/is-arrayish), and by default git on windows doesn't handle long pathnames correctly (even though windows supports them). This should fix it:
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```sh
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$ git config --system core.longpaths true
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```
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### error: use of undeclared identifier 'DefaultDelegateCheckMode'
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This can happen during build, when Debugging Tools for Windows has been installed with Windows Driver Kit. Uninstall Windows Driver Kit and install Debugging Tools with steps described above.
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### ImportError: No module named win32file
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Make sure you have installed `pywin32` with `pip install pywin32`.
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### Build Scripts Hang Until Keypress
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This bug is a "feature" of Windows' command prompt. It happens when clicking inside the prompt window with
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`QuickEdit` enabled and is intended to allow selecting and copying output text easily.
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Since each accidental click will pause the build process, you might want to disable this
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feature in the command prompt properties.
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