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Comment by vunderba | Hacker News Reader

That was my first concern too, but it does look like you can build the binary from source:

https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk

Why such a simple UI utility app needed a VSCodium/Electron UI? The author seems to be well versed in Win32 API, so why not just learn the GUI part as well? It's not that hard.

The reason the Windhawk UI is based on VSCodium is mainly for the mod editing functionality. VSCodium with clangd are used for C++ intellisense out of the box.

You might say that many users don't care about mod development and don't need it. I agree, and I have it on my list to create a lite Windhawk version which doesn't depend on VSCodium.

Note that VSCodium is only used for the UI. When Windhawk is running in the background, its memory consumption is a couple of MB.

I believe those who write C++ have already installed their favorite IDE or editor.

Sounds like a reasonable trade off to me. Improves your dev experience and users still get a fast binary.

Thanks for this by the way. Carrying the torch of Windows modding in the future!

I 100% agree with this sentiment

Doesn't mean it's safe.

Yeah, I would probably delete this updater if I were to try this: https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk/blob/main/src/wind...

as opposed to any other updater on your system...?

> Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart-house is bluetooth enabled and I can give it voice commands via alexa! I love the future!

> Programmers / Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise.

— https://imgur.com/6wbgy2L (actually a tweet from someone else, but apparently it's private now)

It's actually not completely outside of my threat profile.

Honestly, with the prevailaince of ransomware attacks, unless you're a literal hermit, it shouldn't be out of anyone's threat profile.

Absolutely. Sufficiently capable LLMs can mass produce exploits against whole ecosystems; recent Anthropic post moves the risk needle from ‘theoretical’ to ‘realized’. Any auto-updating software is running a risk of its cdn and/or build forge being compromised. Scary times.

This is not an updater. Due to the sensitive nature of Windhawk, it has no auto-updating mechanism, only update notifications (this file is part of that).

I didn't say it was. But having the source means you (and others) can vet the code if that's a concern.

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