winget install --id=Soheilous.GenLauncher -e Install, switch between and start mods, patches, add-ons and executables for Command & Conquer Generals and Zero Hour. Mods come from their authors (their own pages, or direct links the authors published); your game folder is restored when the game closes.
A mod launcher for Command & Conquer: Generals and Zero Hour. Install, update and switch between mods, patches, addons and alternate executables, then press Play. Your game folder is restored when the game closes, even if the launcher or the PC dies mid-game.
Rewrite of the original GenLauncher (WPF, .NET Framework) as a small native app: Tauri 2 (Rust core) with a SvelteKit UI. Mods are listed in the open mod catalog. Windows first, Linux (Wine/Proton) planned.
Windows 10 or 11: download GenLauncher__x64-setup.exe from the
latest release and run it. It installs for your user account and needs
no administrator rights. The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC":
click More info, then Run anyway. A winget package is being prepared (packaging/).
Everything the launcher stores in a game folder lives in one directory, .genlauncher/. Deleting it removes the launcher.
/.genlauncher/
mods///… installed mod versions
mods//{patches,addons,exes}///…
state/ settings.json, launch-journal.json, catalog-.json
tmp/ download staging; a version appears in mods/ only when complete
Launching (plan.rs, journal.rs): the launcher computes the full list of file changes (set aside files the
game must not see, link in the mod, patch the camera height), writes that list to disk, applies it, starts the game, and
undoes the list when the game exits. On the next start an unfinished session is undone automatically. Links are hard
links on Windows (no admin rights or Developer Mode needed) and symlinks elsewhere.
Installing (install.rs, download.rs, extract.rs): resumable downloads with retries; archives (zip, 7z, rar) are extracted with path-traversal protection. Each install is built in tmp/ and swapped in
only when complete.
Migrating from GenLauncher 1.x (migrate.rs): on first start the launcher offers to move an old GLM/ library into
.genlauncher/mods (a rename: nothing is re-downloaded) and to delete the old launcher's own files.
Prerequisites: Node.js 20+, Rust (stable), and on Windows the MSVC C++ Build Tools. On Linux: the Tauri prerequisites.
npm install
npm run tauri dev # run the app
npm run tauri build # installer / bundles
npm run check # type-check the UI
cd src-tauri && cargo test # unit + integration tests (offline)
Installed copies check latest.json on the updater release (made by .github/workflows/update-feed.yml when a release is
published) and install a newer setup program only if its signature matches the public key in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.
Release builds are signed with the private key in the TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY secret. To build the setup program on your
own computer, npm run tauri build needs that variable too (any key made with npx tauri signer generate works for a private
build; such a build just cannot be updated from the official feed).
Some tests talk to the real mod repository and read a real game install. They are #[ignore]d and read-only
unless their name says otherwise (see src-tauri/tests/live.rs):
cargo test --test live -- --ignored --nocapture
Without Tauri (plain npm run dev in a browser) the UI runs on mock data, which is what the visual tests use.
Backups to Google Drive use the OAuth client in src-tauri/src/google.rs. Google's token endpoint also wants the client
"secret" of a desktop client (not confidential, but not stored in this repository): set GENLAUNCHER_GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET
before running (npm run tauri dev) or building a release. Without it the rest of the launcher works and signing in
says it is not set up. See PRIVACY.md and TERMS.md.
website/ is the project's site (landing page, searchable mod index, guide, privacy and terms), a static SvelteKit project
of its own: cd website && npm install && npm run dev. The interactive demo on its home page is the launcher's own interface built with sample data into website/static/demo; a pre-commit hook (husky + lint-staged, installed by npm install) rebuilds it and adds it to the commit whenever the interface changes, and CI checks that it is current. By hand: npm run build:demo. It reads the mod index and the legal pages from this repository
at build time. Deploying on Vercel: import the repository, set Root Directory to website and keep the detected
SvelteKit preset; nothing else is needed.
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
src-tauri/src/layout.rs | the on-disk structure above |
game.rs, game_files.rs | find and recognise game installs; the stock archive lists |
index.rs, catalog.rs, target.rs | the mod index format; merging it with what is on disk |
library.rs, store.rs, version.rs | installed-mod scan, JSON state with atomic writes, version ordering |
plan.rs, journal.rs, launch.rs, big.rs | launching, crash-safe changes, camera-height patch |
download.rs, install.rs, extract.rs, links.rs | downloading and installing |
migrate.rs | moving from GenLauncher 1.x |
src/ | SvelteKit UI (lib/app.svelte.ts is the state, lib/components/ the pieces) |
GENLAUNCHER-SPEC.md | behaviour of the old launcher this project reproduces and improves on |
reference/old-launcher/ | old code and translations kept for features not yet ported |
A Windows 10/11 launcher in preview. What it does today:
Next: Linux/Wine, more of the community's requests (see the issues).
The launcher speaks English, فارسی, Français, Español, Português (Brasil), Italiano, Deutsch, 简体中文, Русский, Українська, Polski, Türkçe and العربية (Persian and Arabic are laid out right to left). Settings > Appearance > Language picks one; "Automatic" follows the system language. The translations were written without native review, so corrections are very welcome.
The code keeps the English text as the key, t("Install"), and each language is one file,
src/lib/i18n/locales/.ts, mapping English to that language. A text a language lacks falls back to English.
node tools/check-i18n.mjs lists what is missing, stale or has wrong {values} per language (CI runs it);
--missing fa prints what Persian still lacks. To add a language, add a file, import it in
src/lib/i18n/index.svelte.ts and add it to LANGUAGES. In development, the "Pseudo (dev)" language wraps every text in
⟦ ⟧, so anything not yet translatable stands out. Messages that come from the Rust core (mostly errors) and the texts in the
mod catalog are not translated yet.
The launcher hosts no mods. Files always come from the people who published them, in one of two ways:
You can also add a file or folder from your computer. Each installed version remembers the page it was downloaded from.
Discover, and the patches / addons / executables listed under each mod, come from the mod catalog: one JSON
file per game in its own repository, read by the launcher from GitHub (a snapshot is built into every release in
src-tauri/bundled/, refreshed with node tools/sync-catalog.mjs, and the last copy fetched is cached, so it works
offline). It holds pointers (names, latest version, the page a mod is published on, cover images) and, where the author published one, the
direct download link, never a file. Versions and links are refreshed weekly from the authors' own manifests. Anyone can add or
fix an entry with a pull request there.
MIT © soheilous and GenLauncher contributors. See NOTICE.md for third-party material and credits.