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Matrioska Setup

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What is Matrioska Setup?:


Matrioska Setup (MSP) is a lightweight, web-rendered C++ installer framework & template engine for Windows.

MSP bridges the visual flexibility of modern web design with the performance and predictability of low-level native systems engineering. It is a three-tier architecture designed to produce a single, self-contained, high-performance installer executable with zero external runtime dependencies.

MSP is not a black-box generator; it operates across three concrete engineering layers: a source-level template framework, a WebCore/D3D11 setup engine, and a static SFX stub wrapper that deploys an isolated environment and wipes all traces upon termination.

Source-Level Template FrameworkA modular, source-first scaffold where developers drop their application payload, define configuration parameters in installer.json, and customize the HTML5/CSS3 frontend.
WebCore/D3D11 Setup EngineA native installer runtime linking Ultralight directly against Direct3D 11. It mounts an in-memory Virtual FileSystem (MiniLoader) that serves assets directly from RAM (.rdata).
Static SFX Stub WrapperA compact Win32 loader compiled with the static C runtime (/MT) that packages the engine, dependencies, and payload into PE .rsrc sections.

Execution Lifecycle & Building

The framework follows a deterministic multi-stage execution pipeline: from the Win32 SFX stub resolving resources in %TEMP%, through Direct3D 11 in-memory asset loading, to native COM shell integration for shortcut deployment.

Building Instructions

  1. Open a Developer Command Prompt with Microsoft Visual Studio (cl.exe, rc.exe) and PowerShell 5.1+.
  2. Run build.bat x64 for 64-bit release or build.bat x86 for 32-bit release binaries.
  3. Find the standalone compiled executable at bin\Matrioska-setup.exe.

Configuration (installer.json)

Configure project metadata, installation targets, shortcut creation, and payload archive paths in your configuration file.

{
  "title": "My Application",
  "internal_name": "MyApp",
  "path": "C:\\Program Files\\MyApp",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "executable": "app.exe"
}
Screenshot

Systems Requirements:


Windows 10/11 (x64 or x86)
MSVC (cl.exe, rc.exe) + PowerShell 5.1+
Direct3D 11 compatible GPU