Akshara for Windows

Akshara is a native, private Sinhala input method for Windows 10 and Windows 11. It provides Smart Phonetic, Classic Phonetic, and Wijesekara/SLS 1134 profiles through the Windows Text Services Framework (TSF).

Typing is processed entirely offline. The TSF DLL contains no networking, telemetry, updater, or typed-text persistence.

The installer adds Akshara Settings to the Start menu. It follows the Windows Settings visual style and lets each user select Smart Phonetic, Classic Phonetic, or Wijesekara without administrator privileges. The selected mode is also available through Windows + Space.

The Typing page controls when an active composition is committed. Changes are picked up when an application or Akshara input profile receives focus.

Akshara supports 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11. The installer includes both x64 and x86 text-service DLLs so Akshara works in 64-bit and 32-bit applications on a 64-bit system. ARM64 is compile-checked but is not currently distributed as a native package.

1. Download the signed Akshara-Windows-vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH-Setup.exe from GitHub Releases and run it as an administrator.
2. Restart applications that were open during installation.
3. Press Windows + Space and select an Akshara input method. Smart Phonetic is recommended for new users.
4. Open Akshara from the Start menu to switch profiles or change composition settings.

Akshara does not contain an updater. Install a newer signed release over the existing version to upgrade. Remove it from Settings > Apps > Installed apps, or run the same setup executable with /uninstall.

Portable core (macOS/Linux):

cmake --preset host-debug
cmake --build --preset host-debug
ctest --preset host-debug

Windows (Visual Studio 2022 with the C++ desktop workload):

cmake --preset windows-x64
cmake --build --preset windows-x64
ctest --test-dir build/x64 -C Release --output-on-failure

Use windows-x86 for 32-bit binaries and windows-arm64 for compile validation. Release artifacts are built, signed, smoke-tested, and published only by the tag workflow. WiX Toolset 7.0.0 is pinned through its MSBuild SDK.

The release installer supports interactive use and silent Store use:

Akshara-Windows-v1.0.0-Setup.exe
Akshara-Windows-v1.0.0-Setup.exe /quiet /norestart
Akshara-Windows-v1.0.0-Setup.exe /uninstall /quiet /norestart

An unsigned developer installer can be built manually from the GitHub Actions Developer setup workflow, or by pushing a dev-vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH tag such as dev-v0.1.0. Open the completed workflow run, download the Akshara-Windows-unsigned-* artifact, extract it, and run the Setup.exe as an administrator. Production vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH tags are reserved for the signed release workflow.

Because this package is not code-signed, Windows may show Windows protected your PC. A developer can choose More info, verify that the app name is Akshara, and then choose Run anyway. The MSI in the same artifact is an alternative and installs the same payload. Do not distribute either unsigned package to end users.

To build the same package on a Windows development machine, use a Developer PowerShell for Visual Studio:

$env:WIX_ACCEPT_EULA = 'wix7'
./tools/build-dev-setup.ps1 -Version 0.1.0

The setup, MSI, and SHA-256 checksums are written to dist/dev. Production releases continue to use the signed tag workflow described in CODE_SIGNING.md.

Microsoft Store submission is dispatched after a signed GitHub Release is published. It requires a protected microsoft-store environment with the Partner Center credentials and product ID referenced by .github/workflows/store.yml.