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Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/sgm1018/BetterWinTab/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

BetterWinTab ships as two release artifacts: a Windows installer built with Inno Setup and a portable zip containing the same self-contained binaries. Both are produced from a single dotnet publish output directory. You can build and release entirely manually, or let the GitHub Actions workflow handle everything automatically when you push a version tag.

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Publish a Self-Contained Release Build

The publish step compiles BetterWinTab in Release configuration, bundles the .NET runtime and Windows App SDK, and writes everything to an output folder that can be run on any supported Windows machine without additional installs. 
dotnet publish BetterWinTab.csproj -p:Platform=x64 -c Release
The published files land at: 
bin\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-x64\publish\
The publish profiles (SelfContained=true, WindowsAppSDKSelfContained=true) ensure the output is fully standalone. In Release configuration, PublishReadyToRun=True and PublishTrimmed=True are applied automatically by the profile.

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Available Publish Profiles

Three publish profiles are provided under Properties/PublishProfiles/. Each produces a self-contained output for its target architecture:
Profile filePlatform flagRuntime identifierOutput path
win-x64.pubxmlx64win-x64bin\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-x64\publish\
win-x86.pubxmlx86win-x86bin\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-x86\publish\
win-arm64.pubxmlARM64win-arm64bin\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-arm64\publish\
To publish for a specific profile, pass its filename: 
# x86
dotnet publish BetterWinTab.csproj -p:Platform=x86 -c Release -p:PublishProfile=win-x86.pubxml

# ARM64
dotnet publish BetterWinTab.csproj -p:Platform=ARM64 -c Release -p:PublishProfile=win-arm64.pubxml

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Build the Installer (Inno Setup)

The Inno Setup script (installer.iss) packages the x64 publish output into a per-user Windows installer with optional startup and desktop icon entries.
The installer script requires the WebView2 Evergreen Bootstrapper (MicrosoftEdgeWebview2Setup.exe, ~1.6 MB) to be present at redist\MicrosoftEdgeWebview2Setup.exe before you run Inno Setup. Download it from the Microsoft Edge WebView2 page and place it in the redist\ folder at the root of the repository. The GitHub Actions workflow downloads this automatically; for local builds you must do it manually once.
1

Publish the x64 release build

dotnet publish BetterWinTab.csproj -p:Platform=x64 -c Release
2

Place the WebView2 bootstrapper

Download MicrosoftEdgeWebview2Setup.exe from https://developer.microsoft.com/microsoft-edge/webview2/ and copy it to:
redist\MicrosoftEdgeWebview2Setup.exe
3

Compile the installer with Inno Setup

& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" installer.iss
To embed a specific version number in the installer filename and About screen, pass the version as a define:
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" /DAppVersion=1.2.0 installer.iss
4

Locate the installer output

The compiled installer is written to:
installer-output\BetterWinTab-Setup-1.0.0-x64.exe
(Substitute the version number you passed, or 1.0.0 if you did not pass /DAppVersion.)

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Build a Portable Zip

The portable distribution is simply the publish output folder compressed into a zip archive. No additional tools are required beyond the standard Compress-Archive cmdlet. 
Compress-Archive -Path "bin\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-x64\publish\*" `
                 -DestinationPath "installer-output\BetterWinTab-1.0.0-win-x64-portable.zip"
Users can extract this zip anywhere and run BetterWinTab.exe directly — no installation step required.

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Installer Features

The Inno Setup script (installer.iss) produces an installer with these characteristics:
FeatureDetail
Install scopePer-user (PrivilegesRequired=lowest) — no UAC prompt required
Startup entryOptional; presented as checked on first install (checkedonce flag); written to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Desktop iconOptional; presented as an unchecked task during setup
WebView2 RuntimeAutomatically installed silently from the bundled bootstrapper if not already present on the machine
UninstallRemoves all files from the install directory and deletes %APPDATA%\BetterWinTab (user settings and state)

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Automated GitHub Actions Release

The repository includes a GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/release-on-tag.yml) that runs the entire release pipeline automatically when you push a version tag.

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Trigger

Push any tag matching v* from the main branch: 
git tag v1.2.0
git push origin v1.2.0
1

Validate the tag is on main

The workflow checks that the tagged commit is reachable from origin/main. If not, the release is skipped and no artifacts are produced.
2

Extract the version number

The tag name (e.g. v1.2.0) is stripped of its v prefix to produce the bare version string (1.2.0) used for installer filenames and the GitHub release title.
3

Set up .NET 8

The workflow uses actions/setup-dotnet@v4 with global-json-file: global.json, ensuring the exact SDK version pinned in the repository is used.
4

Install Inno Setup

Inno Setup 6 is installed on the windows-latest runner via Chocolatey (choco install innosetup).
5

Download the WebView2 bootstrapper

MicrosoftEdgeWebview2Setup.exe is downloaded from the official Microsoft URL and placed at redist/MicrosoftEdgeWebview2Setup.exe.
6

Restore dependencies

dotnet restore BetterWinTab.csproj
7

Publish x64 build

dotnet publish BetterWinTab.csproj `
  -c Release `
  -p:Platform=x64 `
  -p:Version=<version> `
  -p:PublishProfile=win-x64.pubxml
8

Build the installer

ISCC is invoked with /DAppVersion=<version> so the installer filename and metadata match the tag:
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" "/DAppVersion=1.2.0" installer.iss
Output: installer-output\BetterWinTab-Setup-1.2.0-x64.exe
9

Build the portable zip

The publish output folder is compressed using Compress-Archive:
Compress-Archive -Path "bin/Release/net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0/win-x64/publish/*" `
                 -DestinationPath "installer-output/BetterWinTab-1.2.0-win-x64-portable.zip"
10

Create or update the GitHub release

Both artifacts are uploaded to a GitHub release named BetterWinTab v1.2.0. If a release for that tag already exists, the artifacts are re-uploaded with --clobber; otherwise a new release is created.

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Skipping Non-Main Tags

If the tagged commit is not reachable from origin/main, the workflow logs a message and exits cleanly without building or publishing anything. This prevents accidental releases from feature branches or detached HEAD states.

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