description: Windows developer setup — VC++ Redistributable for native Node addons (npm test / electron:start) alwaysApply: true

Windows — Visual C++ Redistributable

On Windows, npm install can succeed while npm test or npm run electron:start still fail because native .node addons cannot load.

When this applies

Suspect a missing VC++ runtime (not a broken lockfile) when you see:

• Cannot find native binding / ERR_DLOPEN_FAILED (oxc-resolver, @electron-internal/extract-zip, …)
• Das angegebene Modul wurde nicht gefunden for a .node file that exists under node_modules
• Electron stuck on Downloading Electron binary..., then Electron failed to install correctly / missing node_modules/electron/dist

Cause: Missing VCRUNTIME140.dll / MSVCP140.dll from the VC++ Redistributable x64. This is a dev machine requirement; end-user packaged Electron apps normally ship their own runtime.

What to do

1. Tell the user to install VC_redist.x64.exe and reopen the terminal.
2. Reinstall Electron so the binary download can finish:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force node_modules\electron
npm install

Optional if still incomplete: node node_modules/electron/install.js

3. Do not default to deleting package-lock.json / all of node_modules first — only if problems remain after the Redistributable is installed.

Full write-up: CONTRIBUTING.md.