Electron-packager returning "Response code 404 (Not Found)" when trying to compile electron project to .exe using CMD on Windows 10

Question

I am a beginner developer, just familiarising myself with electron and node.js. I am trying to convert my electron project into a .exe file using the electron-packager package, but every time I attempt it returns this error:

Response code 404 (Not Found) for https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/download/v0.35.6/SHASUMS256.txt

I have tried the URL, and it returns an error 404, apparently, anything from "releases" down doesn't exist. I am using Windows 10 if that helps.

Here is my main.js file:

    var app = require('app');  // Module to control application life.
var BrowserWindow = require('browser-window');  // Module to create native browser window.

// Keep a global reference of the window object, if you don't, the window will
// be closed automatically when the JavaScript object is garbage collected.
var mainWindow = null;

// Quit when all windows are closed.
app.on('window-all-closed', function() {
    // On OS X it is common for applications and their menu bar
    // to stay active until the user quits explicitly with Cmd + Q
    if (process.platform != 'darwin') {
        app.quit();
    }
});

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
app.on('ready', function() {
    // Create the browser window.
    mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({width: 900, height: 600});

    // and load the index.html of the app.
    mainWindow.loadURL("path to index.html");

    // Emitted when the window is closed.
    mainWindow.on('closed', function() {
        // Dereference the window object, usually you would store windows
        // in an array if your app supports multi windows, this is the time
        // when you should delete the corresponding element.
        mainWindow = null;
    });
});

(the "path to index.html" is substituted for the real path in the actual script)

This is the package.json file:

 {
  "name": "overboard",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "main.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "electron-forge": "^5.2.4",
    "electron-packager": "^14.2.1",
    "pretty-bytes": "^2.0.1"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "electron-prebuilt": "^0.35.2"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "init": "npm install",
    "start": "electron main.js"
  },
  "author": "Me",
  "license": "ISC"
}

Thanks for any help in advance, it's much appreciated.

Answer 1

const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron');

// Keep a global reference of the window object, if you don't, the window will
// be closed automatically when the JavaScript object is garbage collected.
let mainWindow = null;

// Quit when all windows are closed.
app.on("window-all-closed", function() {
    // On OS X it is common for applications and their menu bar
    // to stay active until the user quits explicitly with Cmd + Q
    if (process.platform != "darwin") {
        app.quit();
    }
});

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
app.on("ready", function() {
    // Create the browser window.
    mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({ width: 900, height: 600 });

    // and load the index.html of the app.
    // Not sure where your index.html is placed but if you are using Electron-quick-starter then this will be right.
    // Plus mainWindow.loadURL("https://github.com") not for loading the local file but for loading the url at your browser.

    mainWindow.loadFile("./index.html"); 


    // Emitted when the window is closed.
    mainWindow.on("closed", function() {
        // Dereference the window object, usually you would store windows
        // in an array if your app supports multi windows, this is the time
        // when you should delete the corresponding element.
        mainWindow = null;
    });
});

electron-built has been renamed to electron long time ago. So you should update your package.json

 {
  "name": "overboard",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "main.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "pretty-bytes": "^2.0.1"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "electron": "latest",
    "electron-forge": "latest",
    "electron-packager": "latest",
  },
  "scripts": {
    "init": "npm install",
    "start": "electron ."
  },
  "author": "Me",
  "license": "ISC"
}

Pls remove your node_modules and package-lock.json And try npm install and npm start