monero-gui/installers/windows/README.md

# Monero GUI Wallet Windows Installer #

Copyright (c) 2017-2020, The Monero Project

## Introduction ##

This is a *Inno Setup* script `Monero.iss` plus some related files
that allows you to build a standalone Windows installer (.exe) for
the GUI wallet that comes with the Nitrogen Nebula release of Monero.

This turns the GUI wallet into a more or less standard Windows program,
by default installed into a subdirectory of `C:\Program Files`, a
program group with some icons in the *Start* menu, and automatic
uninstall support. It helps lowering the "barrier to entry"
somewhat, especially for less technically experienced users of
Monero.

As the setup script in file [Monero.iss](Monero.iss) has to list many
files and directories of the GUI wallet package to install by name,
this version of the script only works with exactly the GUI wallet
for Monero release *Nitrogen Nebula* that you find on
[the official download page](https://getmonero.org/downloads/).

It should however be easy to modify the script for future
versions of the GUI wallet.

## License ##

See [LICENSE](LICENSE).

## Building ##

You can only build on Windows, and the result is always a
Windows .exe file that can act as a standalone installer for the
Nitrogen Nebula GUI wallet.

Note that the installer build process is now reproducible / deterministic. For details check the file [Deterministic.md](Deterministic.md).

The build steps in detail:

1. Install *Inno Setup*. You can get it from [here](http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php)
2. Get the Inno Setup script plus related files by cloning the whole [monero-gui GitHub repository](https://github.com/monero-project/monero-gui); you will only need the files in the installer directory `installers\windows` however. Depending on development state, additionally instead of simply using `master` you may have to checkout a specific branch, like `release-v0.16`.
3. The setup script is written to take the GUI wallet files from a subdirectory named `bin`; so create `installers\windows\bin`, get the zip file of the GUI wallet from [here](https://getmonero.org/downloads/), unpack it somewhere, and copy all the files and subdirectories in the single subdirectory there (currently named `monero-gui-0.16.0.0`) to this `bin` subdirectory
4. Start Inno Setup, load `Monero.iss` and compile it
5. The result i.e. the finished installer will be the file `mysetup.exe` in the `installers\windows\Output` subdirectory