autodeploy-desktop

Portable Windows desktop application for customising Veeam Software Appliance ISOs — no Docker, no WSL, no installation required.

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What it does

autodeploy-desktop packages autodeploy.ps1 in a single portable folder for Windows. Extract the zip, double-click the exe, point to your Veeam source ISO, follow the wizard, and get a customised ISO in data\output\.

Everything needed to run is included in the zip:

• autodeploy-desktop.exe — local HTTP server + embedded WebView2 window.
• pwsh/ — PowerShell 7.4.x portable (official Microsoft win-x64 zip, no installation needed).
• runtime/ — MSYS2 portable minimal subtree: xorriso.exe, rsync.exe, bash.exe, msys-2.0.dll, and all transitive DLLs.
• bin/wsl.exe — Go shim that intercepts wsl xorriso … calls from the PS1 and forwards them to the bundled runtime.
• autodeploy/autodeploy.ps1 — pinned copy of the PowerShell script baked into the bundle.
• data/ — created on first launch: iso/, output/, license/, conf/, configs/, work/.

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Preview

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Quick start

1. Download autodeploy-desktop-<version>-win-x64.zip from the Releases page.
2. Extract to any folder (e.g. C:\Tools\autodeploy-desktop\).
3. Double-click autodeploy-desktop.exe.
4. The wizard opens. On step 1, click Browse… to point to your Veeam source ISO (15–20 GB — it is read in-place, not copied).
5. Fill in the configuration steps, click Generate ISO.
6. Watch the live build log. When the job completes, click Open output folder to find your customised ISO.

SmartScreen note

The executable is not code-signed. Windows SmartScreen may show a warning on first launch:

"Windows protected your PC."

Click More info, then Run anyway. This is expected for an unsigned portable app. The source code is fully open and the binary is built in CI — see .github/workflows/build.yml.

WebView2 note

The app uses the WebView2 runtime, which is bundled with Windows 11 and most Windows 10 installations. If WebView2 is absent, the app automatically falls back to opening your default browser on the local wizard URL (http://127.0.0.1:<port>/).

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Portable folder layout

autodeploy-desktop/
├─ autodeploy-desktop.exe      # main binary: HTTP server + WebView2 window
├─ WebView2Loader.dll          # WebView2 loader (optional — fallback to browser if absent)
├─ pwsh/                       # PowerShell 7.4.x portable (win-x64)
│  └─ pwsh.exe …
├─ runtime/                    # MSYS2 portable minimal (relocatable, no install needed)
│  ├─ usr/bin/xorriso.exe
│  ├─ usr/bin/rsync.exe
│  ├─ usr/bin/bash.exe
│  ├─ usr/bin/msys-2.0.dll
│  └─ etc/fstab                # maps C: → /mnt/c … Z: → /mnt/z (WSL convention)
├─ bin/
│  └─ wsl.exe                  # shim: intercepts `wsl <cmd>` → runtime/usr/bin/<cmd>
├─ autodeploy/
│  ├─ autodeploy.ps1           # pinned copy baked into this release
│  └─ .pinned-version          # tag/branch the PS1 was fetched from
└─ data/                       # created on first launch
   ├─ iso/                     # optional: drop source ISOs here instead of browsing
   ├─ output/                  # customised ISOs and .cfg files land here
   ├─ license/                 # optional: Veeam .lic files (for LicenseVBRTune)
   ├─ conf/                    # optional: restore config files (unattended.xml, .bco, …)
   ├─ configs/                 # saved JSON presets (survive app restarts)
   └─ work/                    # temporary staging (auto-purged on launch)

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Data folders

Folder	Purpose
data\iso\	Optional: drop Veeam source ISOs here for the wizard's file picker. Large ISOs (15–20 GB) are read in-place; they are never copied.
data\output\	Each build job creates a subfolder with the customised ISO and .cfg files.
data\license\	Veeam .lic files — needed when LicenseVBRTune is enabled.
data\conf\	Restore config files: unattended.xml, veeam_addsoconfpw.sh, conftoresto.bco.
data\configs\	Named JSON presets saved from the UI. Drop PS1-compatible .json files here directly — they appear in the Load preset dropdown.

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What it does not do

• No network exposure. The HTTP server binds strictly to 127.0.0.1. There is no LAN toggle and no inst.ks= network kickstart feature (removed by design — desktop use only).
• No authentication needed. Because the server is localhost-only, it is accessible only to the logged-in user.
• No job persistence across restarts. In-memory job list is cleared on exit; output files on disk survive.

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Build from source

Prerequisites

• Go 1.22+
• PowerShell 7 (for build-bundle.ps1 and fetch-runtime.ps1)
• MSYS2 installed at C:\msys64 (or set $env:MSYS2_ROOT) — needed only to build the runtime/ subtree
• Internet access (to download pwsh zip and pacman packages)

Quick build

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/BaptisteTellier/autodeploy-desktop
cd autodeploy-desktop

# Full portable bundle (pwsh + MSYS2 runtime + autodeploy.ps1 + zip)
.\scripts\build-bundle.ps1

# Or via Make (if you have GNU make in your PATH):
make bundle

The zip lands in dist\autodeploy-desktop-<version>-win-x64.zip.

Build steps in detail

Step	What happens
scripts\build-bundle.ps1	Orchestrates all steps below
go build ./cmd/autodeploy-desktop	Compiles the main exe (GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64)
go build ./cmd/wslshim	Compiles the wsl.exe shim
scripts\fetch-runtime.ps1	Downloads PowerShell 7.4.x zip and extracts into pwsh/; drives MSYS2 pacman to install xorriso + rsync, computes DLL closure via ntldd/ldd, copies the minimal subtree into runtime/
autodeploy.ps1 fetch	Downloads the pinned PS1 from GitHub into autodeploy/
Zip assembly	Assembles the layout above and produces the .zip in dist/

Individual targets

# Go build only (no runtime bundling)
make build

# Download/update pwsh + MSYS2 runtime only
make fetch-runtime        # or: .\scripts\fetch-runtime.ps1

# Tests + quality checks
make test
make fmt
make vet
make i18n   # EN/FR translation key parity
make tidy

Pinned versions

Component	Pin location
PowerShell 7.4.x	$PWSH_VERSION in scripts\fetch-runtime.ps1 (currently 7.4.10)
MSYS2 packages	Latest from pacman at fetch time; pin by hardcoding .pkg.tar.zst URLs for reproducibility
autodeploy.ps1	-AutodeployVersion parameter of build-bundle.ps1 (default: main)

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CI

GitHub Actions workflows:

Workflow	Trigger	What it does
ci.yml	Push / PR	gofmt, go vet, go test, EN/FR i18n parity check
build.yml	Push to main/tags	Full bundle build on windows-latest + GitHub Release with SHA-256

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Acknowledgements

All ISO customisation logic (kickstart, GRUB, MFA, VCSP, license) is implemented by BaptisteTellier/autodeploy. This project is the Windows desktop packaging.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Made by Baptiste TELLIER for the Veeam community.