Electron app won't open after compiling for Win32 x64

Question

I have an issue. I was creating an app with electron and when I compiled it to an .exe file it built, but haven't started/created a window on my laptop. I tried turning off my Windows Defender but that didn't help. Whenever I try to run it with my npm script npm start or electron . it works. Is there anything that I'm doing wrong?

I run the npm run build script which will execute
mkdir build && electron-packager build ISS-Live-Locator --platform=win32 --arch=x64

I copied this main.js file from the electron documentation. And updated my app structure accordingly.

// Modules to control application life and create native browser window
const {app, BrowserWindow} = require('electron')
const path = require('path')

function createWindow () {
  // Create the browser window.
  const mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
    width: 800,
    height: 600,
    webPreferences: {
      preload: path.join(__dirname, 'preload.js')
    }
  })

  // and load the index.html of the app.
  mainWindow.loadFile('index.html')

  // Open the DevTools.
  // mainWindow.webContents.openDevTools()
}

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
// Some APIs can only be used after this event occurs.
app.whenReady().then(() => {
  createWindow()

  app.on('activate', function () {
    // On macOS it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
    // dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
    if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow()
  })
})
// Quit when all windows are closed, except on macOS. There, it's common
// for applications and their menu bar to stay active until the user quits
// explicitly with Cmd + Q.
app.on('window-all-closed', function () {
  if (process.platform !== 'darwin') app.quit()
})

// In this file you can include the rest of your app's specific main process
// code. You can also put them in separate files and require them here.

Thank you! Hope this made sense.

Answer 1

Your build command seems wrong.

See the docs of electron-packager for the command's signature:

electron-packager <sourcedir> <appname> --platform=<platform> --arch=<arch> [optional flags...]

What you do in mkdir build && electron-packager build ISS-Live-Locator --platform=win32 --arch=x64 is basically trying to use the newly created build folder as source directory. Therefore, your app should be empty and can't run.

Also, you should get Unable to determine Electron version. Please specify an Electron version Unable to determine Electron version. Please specify an Electron version error because you don't specify electron version.

Try this build command instead:

electron-packager . ISS-Live-Locator --platform=win32 --arch=x64 --electronVersion=10.1.1