XWinCode

Xcode, for Windows.
Write, build and run Swift on Windows. Build, sign and install real iPhone apps. No Mac required.

Download  ·  One-line setup  ·  Features  ·  Build from source

Get started

1. Download XWinCode_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe from the latest release and run it. It installs for your user only (no administrator rights), puts XWinCode on your desktop and in the Start menu, and keeps itself up to date. The installer is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn you the first time: More info → Run anyway.
2. Install the toolchains. Open Settings → Tools & SDKs: XWinCode checks Swift, the Visual Studio Build Tools, WSL, xtool, the iOS SDK and your Apple account, and installs whatever is missing in one click. Or let the setup script do everything at once.

Set up everything in one line

Open PowerShell and run:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OnelightCyber/XWinCode/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

From a clone of this repository, double-click install.cmd instead. The script asks for administrator rights once, can be run again at any time (finished steps are skipped), and installs:

Step	What you get
Swift for Windows	The official toolchain and the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools, to build Windows programs
Apple Devices	Apple's USB driver, so Windows sees your iPhone
WSL and Ubuntu 24.04	Placed on the drive with the most free space
Swift for Linux, xtool	The open-source iOS toolchain, plus libimobiledevice for the iPhone console
iOS SDK	Extracted from the Xcode.xip you download from Apple with your Apple ID
Apple account	Signed in through xtool's own window: your password never goes through XWinCode
XWinCode	The latest release, with its desktop shortcut

Options: -Yes (accept every default), -SkipWindowsToolchain, -SkipIos, -SkipApp, -Distro <name>, -Xip <path to Xcode.xip>.

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OnelightCyber/XWinCode/main/scripts/install.ps1))) -Xip "$HOME\Downloads\Xcode.xip"

Features

Editor

• Monaco with a monochrome or Xcode theme, tabs, minimap, a jump bar that follows the symbol under the cursor, Quick Open (Ctrl+P) and the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).
• SourceKit-LSP: completion, hover help, go to definition, rename and live diagnostics. WSL warms up in the background at launch, so it is ready when you are.
• Format on save with SourceKit-LSP, and search and replace across the whole project (Ctrl+Shift+F).
• SwiftUI Library (Ctrl+Shift+L): about sixty views, modifiers and snippets, inserted with tab stops.

Canvas

• Live SwiftUI preview (Ctrl+Alt+Enter) next to the code, redrawn as you type. A built-in Swift interpreter runs your views, #Preview blocks and PreviewProviders, with @State, bindings, @Observable models, navigation, tabs, lists, forms and controls that respond to clicks.
• 29 iPhones and 6 iPads, from iPhone 11 to iPhone 17 Pro Max: real screen sizes, safe areas, Dynamic Island or notch, portrait or landscape, light and dark, every Dynamic Type size. Each model comes with a frame-time estimate against its chip and refresh rate.
• Animations and assets: withAnimation, .animation and .transition play as you click; colors, SVG images and custom fonts come from your project.
• Live on iPhone: the free XWinCode Preview app draws the same preview with Apple's real SwiftUI on your iPhone, over USB or Wi-Fi, sends your taps back, and reports real fps, memory, CPU and thermal state. One click installs it from the Canvas. Take a screenshot of the iPhone or record a video of the preview without leaving the Canvas.
• Selection mode: click a view in the preview to jump to its code, and see the view under the cursor outlined. The view inspector changes its font, colors, padding, frame or text and rewrites the code for you. Variants show light and dark, several screen sizes, text sizes, orientations or every #Preview side by side.

Build, run and debug

• Windows programs: Swift packages built with the official toolchain (swift build, run, test). Errors land in the editor, progress is live, and the console takes standard input.
• Debugger for Windows programs, built on LLDB: breakpoints in the gutter (F9), variables, call stack, Continue (F5), Step Over (F10), Step Into (F11) and Step Out (Shift+F11).
• iPhone apps: built, signed and installed by xtool in WSL, over USB or Wi-Fi.
• Project templates: iOS app (SwiftUI), Windows command-line tool, library with tests.
• Project settings: bundle ID, display name, version and build, app icon (drop any image, it is cropped to 1024 × 1024) and privacy permissions, without touching Info.plist by hand.

iPhone

• Native detection over usbmuxd and lockdown, with no extra tool on Windows.
• Windows → WSL bridge for usbmuxd through WSL interop: no usbipd, no open network port, no firewall rule.
• iPhone console (Ctrl+Shift+C): live device logs, filtered to your app or not.
• Installed apps: launch, reinstall or uninstall them from the Devices window.
• Take Screenshot: the whole iPhone screen at full resolution, saved in Pictures › XWinCode, on iOS 17 and later too. XWinCode downloads go-ios the first time, checks it against its SHA-256 and runs it without administrator rights.
• 7-day reminder: apps signed with a free Apple ID stop working after seven days. XWinCode tells you before they expire and reinstalls them in one click.

Everywhere

• Liquid glass, in monochrome: an Xcode 26 style toolbar, glass panels over Mica, Mica Alt or Acrylic, light and dark themes that follow Windows, and a build HUD.
• Integrated terminal (ConPTY): PowerShell, Command Prompt or WSL.
• 8 languages: English, Français, Español, Deutsch, Português (Brasil), Italiano, 简体中文, 日本語. XWinCode follows the Windows language until you pick one.
• Automatic updates, signed, straight from GitHub Releases.
• Secure by default: Restricted Mode for projects you have not trusted yet, strict Content Security Policy, signed and version-bound updates, no open network port, and your Apple ID password never passes through XWinCode. See SECURITY.md.

Welcome window: recent projects and toolchain status at a glance	SwiftUI Library: drop views and modifiers right at the cursor

How it works

Target	Toolchain
Windows program	Official Swift for Windows (swift.org), with MSVC and the Windows SDK
iPhone app	xtool in WSL, Swift for Linux, the iOS SDK extracted from Xcode.xip, signing with your Apple ID
Device	Apple Mobile Device service (Apple Devices app), relayed into WSL by socat and xwincode.exe --usbmux-stdio

Apple only ships its iOS tools for macOS. Outside a Mac, the one open-source toolchain that works is xtool, on Linux: hence WSL. There is no iOS Simulator outside macOS, so XWinCode brings its own preview: the Canvas runs your SwiftUI code in a built-in interpreter and draws an approximation of it, and Live on iPhone sends the same view tree to the XWinCode Preview app, which draws it with the real SwiftUI on your device.

Requirements

• Windows 10 (build 19041 or later) or Windows 11, x64
• For Windows programs: Swift for Windows and the Visual Studio Build Tools with the C++ tools and the Windows SDK
• For iPhone apps: WSL 2 with Ubuntu, Swift for Linux (swiftly), xtool, Xcode.xip from developer.apple.com, the Apple Devices app, and Developer Mode turned on on the iPhone

The setup script and Settings → Tools & SDKs take care of all of it.

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Build	Ctrl+B
Run	Ctrl+R / F5
Stop	Ctrl+. / Shift+F5
Test	Ctrl+U
Clean	Ctrl+Shift+K
Archive (.ipa)	Ctrl+Shift+A
Quick Open	Ctrl+P
Command Palette	Ctrl+Shift+P
Find in Project	Ctrl+Shift+F
SwiftUI Library	Ctrl+Shift+L
Canvas	Ctrl+Alt+Enter
Toggle Breakpoint	F9
Continue / Step Over / Step Into / Step Out	F5 / F10 / F11 / Shift+F11
iPhone Console	Ctrl+Shift+C
New Terminal	Ctrl+Shift+T
Devices	Ctrl+Shift+2
Settings	Ctrl+,
Navigator / Debug Area / Inspector	Ctrl+0 / Ctrl+Shift+Y / Ctrl+Alt+0

Build from source

You need Node.js 20 or later, Rust (stable, MSVC) and the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools.

git clone https://github.com/OnelightCyber/XWinCode
cd XWinCode
npm install
npm run tauri dev      # desktop app with hot reload
npm run dev            # interface only, in the browser, with a mocked backend
npm run tauri build    # installer in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis

Stack: Tauri 2 (Rust), React 19, TypeScript, Monaco Editor, xterm.js.

src/                  React interface
  components/         toolbar, navigator, editor, consoles, sheets
  i18n/               translations, one JSON file per language, shared with Rust
  lib/                state (zustand), IPC, LSP client, commands, SwiftUI library
  lib/preview/        Swift interpreter for the Canvas (lexer, parser, runtime, iPhone models)
  components/canvas/  Canvas panel and SwiftUI renderer
src-tauri/src/
  builder.rs          scheme actions (build, run, test, archive)
  process.rs          streamed tasks and diagnostics
  device.rs           iPhone discovery (usbmuxd and lockdown)
  bridge.rs           usbmuxd bridge from Windows to WSL (stdio interop)
  idevice.rs          iPhone console and installed apps
  preview.rs          Live on iPhone link (usbmuxd tunnel to XWinCode Preview)
  capture.rs          iPhone screenshots (go-ios, verified and run on demand)
  dap.rs              debugger bridge (lldb-dap)
  installs.rs         installed apps and their expiry dates
  projcfg.rs          project settings (xtool.yml, Info.plist, icon)
  lsp.rs              SourceKit-LSP bridge (Windows or WSL)
  pty.rs              ConPTY terminals
  toolchain.rs        toolchain checks and installers
  trust.rs            Restricted Mode (trusted projects)
  i18n.rs             backend translations
src-tauri/preview-app/  XWinCode Preview, the companion iPhone app (SwiftUI, built with xtool)
scripts/
  install.ps1         one-line setup
  release.mjs         changelog, version bump and release tag
  publish-release.mjs draft release and update manifest (CI)

Releases and updates

Write what changed under ## [Unreleased] in CHANGELOG.md, commit, then run:

npm run release -- 0.2.0

The script turns Unreleased into the 0.2.0 section, bumps the version everywhere, tags v0.2.0 with those notes and pushes. GitHub Actions builds the installer, signs it in a separate job that never sees the project's dependencies, writes latest.json and opens a draft release with the changelog as its notes: publish it, and every installed copy of XWinCode offers the update.

For a fork, generate your own signing key with npx tauri signer generate, put the public key in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json (plugins.updater.pubkey), and add the private key and its password as the TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY and TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD repository secrets.

Translations

Every string lives in src/i18n/locales/<language>.json, one flat file per language, read by both the interface and the Rust backend. English is the reference: a missing key falls back to English.

To add a language:

1. Copy en.json to <code>.json and translate the values. Keep {placeholders} as they are, and translate both halves of _one / _other plural pairs.
2. Register the code in LANGUAGES and DICTS in src/i18n/index.ts, and in locales! in src-tauri/src/i18n.rs.
3. Run cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml: it checks that every file parses and keeps the English placeholders.

Fixes to existing translations are just as welcome.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Before opening a pull request, run npx tsc --noEmit and cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml; CI runs both on every push.

Found a security issue? Please report it privately, as described in SECURITY.md.

License

XWinCode is free software, released under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or any later version (GPL-3.0-or-later). You can use, study, change and share it, as long as every version you distribute stays under the same license and comes with its source code.

Apple software

XWinCode does not contain or distribute any Apple software: the iOS SDK is extracted from the Xcode.xip that you download yourself with your own Apple ID. The Xcode and Apple SDKs license agreement only allows their use on Apple-branded computers. Make that call knowingly.

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_{XWinCode is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple. Xcode, iPhone, iOS and Swift are trademarks of Apple Inc.}