About

Mini-Launcher is an application launcher with the following features:

• DLL Injection
• Lua Scripting
• Splash Screen (optional)
• File Integrity
• Expanding Variables
• Verbatim Arguments
• Setting Environnement Variables
• Setting PCA Flags

🐧 This software has an emphasis on being compatible with Linux/Proton.

💻 This software is for my own personal use but feel free to use it.

Command Line

--config string (launcher.json)

File path to the json configuration file to use. Defaults to launcher.json.
Path can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir)

--dry-run (false)

Program will exit before starting the executable.

💡 This flag can come in handy when testing Lua Script.

--help (false)

Display a message box with all the command line arguments and a short description.

Config file

{
  bin: string,
  cwd?: string,
  args?: string,
  env?: object,
  hide?: bool,
  shell?: bool,
  wait?: bool,
  script?: {
    path: string,
    fs?: bool,
    net?: bool,
    reg?: bool,
    exec?: bool
  },
  addons?: []{
    path: string, 
    required?: bool
  },
  integrity?: []{
    sri: string, 
    path?: string, 
    size?: number,
    signed?: bool
  },
  splash?: {
    show: bool,
    image: []string,
    timeout?: number,
    wait?: string
  },
  symlink?: []{
    path: string,
    dest: string
  },
  compatibility?: {
    version?: string,
    fullscreen?: bool,
    admin?: bool,
    invoker?: bool,
    aware?: bool
  },
  prefix?: {
    winver?: string,
    dpi?: number,
    overrides?: object
  },
  attrib?: []{
    path: string,
    hidden?: boolean,
    readonly?: boolean
  },
  menu?: object
}

bin: string

File path to the executable to launch.
Path can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir).

%VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

cwd?: string (parent directory)

An option to override the current working dir of the executable to be launched.
This is equivalent to the "Start In" option of a Windows shortcut.

By default the parent directory of the executable is used.
Example: G:\METAPHOR\METAPHOR.exe => G:\METAPHOR\

args?: string (none)

Optional argument(s) to pass to the executable.
Argument(s) are passed "verbatim" ie: no quoting or escaping is done.

%VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

env?: object (none)

Add additional environment key-value pairs to the executable process.

Example:

{
  "env": {
    "GAMEPAD_LED": "BATTERYLVL"
  }
}

%VAR% in value are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

hide?: bool (false)

When enabled, the executable will run without displaying a window, making it invisible to the user.

shell?: bool (false)

When enabled runs inside of a shell (%COMSPEC% ie cmd.exe).
💡Use the hide option above to hide the shell.

wait?: bool (false)

When enabled, will wait for the executable to terminate before exiting.

script?: { path: string, fs, net, reg, exec?: bool } (none)

Lua script to be run just before the executable (see Lua Scripting below for more details).

Originally this feature was for handling CD Key generation in old games.
See the ./example directory for some examples.

• path: string

  Script file path can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir).
  %VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

• fs, net, reg, exec ?: bool (false)

  These flags act as a simple permissions system:

  • fs: Filesystem operation
  • net: Network request
  • reg: Windows registry
  • exec: Shell command

  You must explicitly grant access to these resources.

addons?: []{ path: string, required?: boolean } (none)

List of addons to inject to the executable process.
When required is set to true and if the injection failed, alert the user and kill the process.

Path can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir).
%VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

Example:

{
  "addons": [
    { "path": "Launcher/opencnconline.dll", "required": true }
  ]
}

Important

This launcher does not support Wow64 injection so make sure the launcher, the executable and the addon are all the same arch (x86 or x64).

integrity?: []{sri: string, path?: string, size?: number, signed?: bool} (none)

Check file(s) integrity before starting the executable.

• sri: string is a Subresource Integrity, algo supported are sha256, sha384, sha512.

• path?: string (executable path) File path, can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir). If no path is specified then the sri targets the executable path.
  %VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

• size?: number optional file size (in bytes), to accelerate sum comparison.

• signed?: bool (false) When true, will check if the file is signed and trusted.

splash?: { show: bool, image: []string, timeout?: number } (none)

Display a splash screen until the executable process change the cursor or display a window. The splash screen should be a BMP file.

• show: bool (false) Wether to display the splash screen or not.

• image: []string Splash screen filepath. When more than one, a splash screen is selected at random.
  File path can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir).
  %VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

• timeout?: number (10 sec) Failsafe timeout in seconds.
  There was no event dispatched under Linux/Proton on Wayland in my limited testing.

• wait?: string ("FOREGROUND") Which window event to wait for (case insensitive):

  • FOREGROUND: The foreground window has changed and is visible.
  • WINDOW: An hidden window is shown.
  • CURSOR: An hidden cursor is shown.

symlink?: []{path: string, dest: string} (none)

Creates folder symlink before starting the executable.
Path can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir).
%VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

💡 Useful for savegames:

{
  "symlink": [
    { 
      "path": "%DOCUMENTS%/Telltale Games/The Walking Dead",
      "dest": "%SAVEGAME%/The Walking Dead"
    }
  ]
}

Caution

This requires elevated privileges ("Admin rights") or the SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege privilege.

compatibility?: object (none)

Set Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA) flags, this is equivalent to the right click > Properties > Compatibility tab on Windows.

PCA flag(s) are set in HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/AppCompatFlags/Layers.

🐧 This has no effect on application behavior under Wine/Proton

• version?: string Run the executable in compatibility mode for:

  • WIN95
  • WIN98
  • WIN2000
  • WINXP
  • WINXPSP1
  • WINXPSP2
  • WINXPSP3
  • VISTARTM
  • VISTASP1
  • VISTASP2
  • WIN7RTM
  • WIN8RTM

• fullscreen?: bool Disable fullscreen optimizations.

• admin?: bool Run the executable as an Administrator.

• invoker?: bool Enforce running the executable as the invoker.

• aware?: bool Override high DPI scaling behavior (Application).

NB: admin and invoker are mutually exclusive. If both are set admin supersede invoker.

prefix?: {winver?: string, dpi?: number, overrides?: object} (none)

🐧 Linux Wine/Proton only.

Update current prefix settings.

• winver?: string Windows version. Accepted values are:

  • win11
  • win10
  • win81
  • win8
  • win7
  • vista
  • winxp

• dpi?: number Scale factor: 96 (100%), 120 (125%), 144 (150%), 192 (200%) to 480 (500%).

• overrides?: object key-value pairs of dll overrrides. Accepted values:

  • native,builtin
  • builtin,native
  • native
  • builtin

Example:

{
  "prefix": {
    "winver": "win10",
    "dpi": 96,
    "overrides": {
      "winmm": "native,builtin"
    }
  }
}

attrib?: []{path: string, hidden?: boolean = false, readonly?: boolean = false} (none)

Set file(s) attributes: read only and/or hidden.

Path can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir).
%VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

menu?: object (none)

Show a very simple button menu where each key/value pair is a button label and its corresponding override config file.

Example:

{
  "menu": {
    "Mass Effect": "me.json",
    "Mass Effect 2": "me2.json",
    "Mass Effect 3": "me3.json"
  }
}

Path can be absolute or relative (to the current working dir). %VAR% in the path are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

💡 You can point an entry to the default config file. If empty, the default is assumed ie: the value of --config string which defaults to launcher.json

Example:

{
  "binary": "bin/bg3_dx11.exe"
  "menu": {
    "Baldurs Gate 3": "",
    "Baldurs Gate 3 (Vulkan)": "vulkan.json"
  }
}

Expanding Variable

List of variables that will get expanded:

• %APPDATA%
• %LOCALAPPDATA%
• %PROGRAMDATA%
• %DESKTOP%
• %DOCUMENTS%
• %MUSIC%
• %PICTURES%
• %VIDEOS%
• %DOWNLOAD%
• %SAVEGAME%
• %HOMEDIR%, %USERPROFILE%
• %PUBLIC%
• %SYSTEMDIR%
• %TEMP%, %TMP%
• %CURRENTDIR%: Current working dir of the mini-launcher
• %BINDIR%: Dir where the mini-launcher is located at
• %USERNAME%
• %LANGCODE%: User's language as ISO 639 language code (ex: en, fr, de)
• %LANGUAGE%: User's language in English (ex: english, french, german)
• %SCREENWIDTH%, %XRES%: Current primary display horizontal resolution (DPI Aware)
• %SCREENHEIGHT%, %YRES%: Current primary display vertical resolution (DPI Aware)
• %SCREENREFRESH%: Current primary display refresh rate

Lua Scripting

Very simple scripting engine powered by yuin/gopher-lua.
See the ./example directory for some examples.

• Lua 5.1
• Libraries:
  • Package
  • Basic
  • Table
  • String
  • Math
  • Coroutine

Some standard libraries are not enabled by design.
The followings modules are exposed to the Lua VM, I might add more later on.

🌐 Globals

sleep(ms: int)

Suspends the execution of the Lua engine until the time-out interval elapses (interval is in milliseconds).

console: SetFuncs

• log(any, ...)
• warn(any, ...)
• error(any, ...)

Convenience methods to print value or array with timestamp and log level. Values are colored depending on their type.

💡 print() is an alias to console.log()

Array: SetFuncs

• find(table, func) any
• some(table, func) bool
• includes(table, any) bool

Convenience methods to search array Lua table.

Example:

local arr = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Array.find(arr, function(x) return x > 3 end)
Array.includes(arr, 3)

local arr = {
  {foo = "bar", value = 1},
  {foo = "baz", value = 2}
}

Array.find(arr, function(x) return x.foo == "bar" end)
Array.some(arr, function(x) return x.foo == "baz" end)

Failure(code?: string, message?: string) Failure{ code: string, message: string }

Failure is a custom type (userdata) that represents an "error object" with an associated error code and message. This provides a structured way to handle error.

• code?: string ("ERR_UNKNOWN") Error code.

• message?: string ("An unknown error occurred") Error message.

💡 Failure has a __tostring metamethod. If not invoked automatically, you can explicitly call it using tostring(Failure)

Example:

local err = Failure("ERR_NOT_FOUND", "The requested item was not found")
print(err.code)    -- "ERR_NOT_FOUND"
print(err.message) -- "The requested item was not found"
print(err)         -- "[ERR_NOT_FOUND]: The requested item was not found"

local value, err = Foo()
if err and err.code == "ERR_UNKNOWN" then
  error(err.message) -- Raise an error "An unknown error occurred"
  -- or
  error(tostring(err))
end

📦 Modules

📦 Regedit

This is a module to read and write from/to the registry.

Requires the reg permission.

local regedit = require("regedit")

• KeyExists(root: string, path: string) bool
• ListAllSubkeys(root: string, path: string) []string
• ListAllValues(root: string, path: string) []string
• QueryValueType(root: string, path: string, key: string) string
• QueryStringValue(root: string, path: string, key: string) string //REG_SZ & REG_EXPAND_SZ
• QueryMultiStringValue(root: string, path: string, key: string) []string //REG_MULTI_SZ
• QueryBinaryValue(root: string, path: string, key: string) string //REG_BINARY
• QueryIntegerValue(root: string, path: string, key: string) string //REG_DWORD & REG_QWORD
• WriteKey(root: string, path: string)
• DeleteKey(root: string, path: string)
• WriteStringValue(root: string, path: string, key: string, value: string) //REG_SZ
• WriteExpandStringValue(root: string, path: string, key: string, value: string) //REG_EXPAND_SZ
• WriteMultiStringValue(root: string, path: string, key: string, value: []string) //REG_MULTI_SZ
• WriteBinaryValue(root: string, path: string, key: string, value: string) //REG_BINARY
• WriteDwordValue(root: string, path: string, key: string, value: string) //REG_DWORD
• WriteQwordValue(root: string, path: string, key: string, value: string) //REG_QWORD
• DeleteKeyValue(root: string, path: string, key: string)

✔️ root key accepted values are "HKCR", "HKCU", "HKLM", "HKU" or "HKCC".
💡For the default key @ use key = ""

%VAR% in WriteStringValue(..., value) are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

NB: REG_DWORD & REG_QWORD are represented as string due to floating-point precision limits, if you need to perform arithmetic on them in Lua use tonumber().

📦 Random

This is a module to generate random things.

local random = require("random")

• AlphaNumString(length: number) string
• UserPID() number

AlphaNumString(length: number) string

Generate a random alpha numeric string of specified length.

UserPID() number

Picks a random PID from the user-owned processes.

📦 File

This is a module to read and write text data from/to file.

Requires the fs permission.

local file = require("file")

• Write(filename: string, data: string, format?: string = "utf8") Failure
• Read(filename: string, format?: string = "utf8") string, Failure
• Remove(path: string) Failure
• Info(filename: string) object, Failure
• Glob(root: string, pattern: string, options?: { recursive?: false, absolute?: false }) []string, Failure
• Basename(path: string, suffix?: bool = true) string

Encoding format:

• utf8
• utf8sig
• utf16le
• windows1252

%VAR% in filename / root are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

Write(filename: string, data: string, format?: string = "utf8") Failure

Overwrite text data with specified format encoding (default to utf8).
Create target parent dir if doesn't exist.
File is created if doesn't exist.

Read(filename: string, format?: string = "utf8") string, Failure

Read text data as specified format encoding (default to utf8).

Remove(path: string) Failure

Delete file or directory and any children it contains at the given path.

Info(filename: string) object, Failure

Retrieves information for the specified path.
Time information are represented as Unix epoch time (seconds).
If the target is a file this will also include the file version information (if any) and whether the file is signed and trusted or not.

{
  size: number, 
  time: { 
    modification: number, 
    creation?: number, 
    access?: number
  }, 
  version?: { 
    major: number, 
    minor: number, 
    build: number, 
    revision: number 
  },
  signed?: bool
}

Glob(root: string, pattern: string, options?: { recursive?: false, absolute?: false }) []string, Failure

Returns the names of all files matching pattern. The pattern syntax is the same as in Go path/filepath Match. With the addition that, to return only directories the pattern should end with /.

Basename(path: string, suffix?: bool = true) string

Returns the last element of path. When suffix is false the file extension is removed.

Example:

file.Basename("/foo/bar/quux.html");
-- Returns: "quux.html"

file.Basename("/foo/bar/quux.html", false);
-- Returns: "quux" 

📦 Config

This is a module to parse/stringify config files.

local JSON = require("config/json")
local TOML = require("config/toml")
local INI  = require("config/ini")
local YAML = require("config/yaml")
local XML  = require("config/xml")

• JSON
  • Parse(data: string) table, Failure
  • Stringify(data: table, pretty?: bool = true) string, Failure
• TOML
  • Parse(data: string) table, Failure
  • Stringify(data: table) string, Failure
• INI
  • Parse(data: string, options?: table) table
  • Stringify(data: table, options?: table) string
• YAML
  • Parse(data: string) table, Failure
  • Stringify(data: table) string, Failure
• XML
  • Parse(data: string) table, Failure
  • Stringify(data: table, pretty?: bool = true) string, Failure

⚠️ Due to GoLang using hashmap the key order is not guaranteed !

INI

Parse options:

• filter?: []string (none) Section filter
• global?: bool (true) Include global section
• unquote?: bool (true) Unquote string (starting/ending with " or ')
• boolean?: bool (true) String to boolean type conversion
• number?: bool (true) String to number type conversion (same rules as JavaScript's JSON.parse())

Stringify options:

• whitespace?: bool (true) add space between delimiter =
• blankLine?: bool (false) add empty line between sections
• quote?: bool (false) quote string with "
• eol?: string (system) Either \n or \r\n

📦 Http

This is a module to do http request.

Requires the net permission.

local http = require("http")

• Fetch(url: string, options?: {method?: string, headers?: table, body?: string }) {status, body, headers}, Failure
• Download(url: string, destDir: string) string, Failure

Fetch(url: string, options?: {method?: string, headers?: table, body?: string }) {status, body, headers}, Failure

A Fetch like API.

Example:

local http = require("http")
local JSON = require("config/json")

local repo = "xan105/Mini-Launcher"
local url = "https://api.github.com/repos/" .. repo .. "/releases/latest"

local res, err = http.Fetch(url, {
  method = "GET",
  headers = {
    ["Accept"] = "application/vnd.github.v3+json",
    ["User-Agent"] = "Chrome/"
  }
})
if err then
  console.error(err)
end

local github, err = JSON.Parse(res.body)
if err then
  console.error(err)
end

local latestRelease = github["tag_name"]

Download(url: string, destDir: string) string, Failure

Download a file. Filename is determined by the Content-Disposition header. Create target parent dir if doesn't exist.
Overwrite existing file.
Return the downloaded file path.

%VAR% in destDir are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

Example:

local http = require("http")

local filepath, err = http.Download("http://.../foo.bar", "%DOWNLOAD%")
if err then
  console.error(err)
else
  console.log("downloaded: " .. filepath)
end

📦 Archive

This is a module to decompress archive file.

Requires the fs permission.

local archive = require("archive")

• Unzip(filePath: string, destDir: string, excludeList?: []string) Failure
• Un7z(filePath: string, destDir: string, excludeList?: []string) Failure

Extract .zip / 7.z archive to destDir. Overwriting existing files.

%VAR% are expanded if any (see Expanding Variable for more details).

📦 User

This is a module to get info about the current user.

local user = require("user")

• name: string : User name
• admin: bool : has elevated rights ?
• language: string: User's language in English (ex: english, french, german)
• locale: User's language as ISO 639
  • code: string: language code (ex: en, fr, de)
  • region: string: language region (ex: US, BE, DE)

📦 Video

This is a module to get info about the current display mode.

local video = require("video")

• Current() { width: number (px), height: number (px), hz: number, scale: number (%)}, Failure

📦 Process

This is a module to get info about the current Mini-Launcher process.

local process = require("process")

• platform: string : operating system target (GOOS)
• arch: string : architecture target (GOARCH)
• pid: number : process id
• Cwd() string : process current working dir
• ExecPath() string : process absolute pathname
• On(event: string, callback: function) : register callback function to be run for specified event

Events

• will-quit : Fired when process is about to terminate.

📦 Shell

This is a module to execute shell command.

Requires the exec permission.

local shell = require("shell")

• Run(command: string) {stdout: string, stderr: string}, Failure

Run(command: string) {stdout: string, stderr: string}, Failure

Spawns a shell then execute the command within that shell (ComSpec).

📦 Time

This is a module to handle time conversion.

local time = require("time")

• Current() number: Current Unix time
• HumanizeDuration(seconds: number) string
• ToUnix(datetime: string, format?: string = "ISO8601") number, Failure
• ToIso8601(datetime: number) string

NB: ToUnix() supported formats are:

• "ISO8601"
• "YYYY-MM-DD"
• "YYYY/MM/DD"
• "YYYY_MM_DD"
• "DD-MM-YYYY"
• "DD/MM/YYYY"
• "MM-DD-YYYY"
• "MM/DD/YYYY"
• "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"
• "YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS"

Build

• Golang v1.24.1
• go-winres installed in %PATH% env var for win32 manifest & cie

Run build.cmd on Windows
Run build.sh on Linux

Output files are located in ./build/${platform}/${config}