VaultArc

VaultArc is a native Windows archive manager built with C#, .NET 8, and WinUI 3.

Why VaultArc

• Native Windows desktop UX (not web/Electron)
• Modern replacement path for traditional archive utilities
• Security-first extraction defaults
• Production-minded layered architecture

MVP Features

• Open archives and browse contents without extraction
• Archive browser with folder navigation and double-click behavior
• Extract archives with path traversal protection
• Create ZIP archives with compression presets
• Job queue with progress and status history
• Archive integrity test queueing
• Recent archives storage
• Hash tools: MD5, SHA-256, SHA-512
• Hash comparison and CSV report export
• Dark mode settings
• Open Selected / Run Selected workflows from inside archives
• Managed temp extraction sessions for launch/open scenarios

Format Support

• Read/Extract: ZIP, 7Z, TAR, GZ, XZ (SharpCompress)
• Create: ZIP, TAR, TAR.GZ/TGZ, TAR.XZ/TXZ, GZ, XZ, ARC (System.IO.Compression + SharpCompress + VaultArc native ARC)
• RAR: best-effort read/extract depending on runtime library support and archive variant

.gz and .xz creation currently uses TAR+compression semantics for multi-file/folder input (use .tar.gz / .tar.xz for clarity).

VaultArc does not claim RAR creation support in MVP.

Solution Structure

• VaultArc.App - WinUI 3 UI, navigation, page flows, view models
• VaultArc.Core - contracts, result/error primitives
• VaultArc.Models - strongly-typed data models
• VaultArc.Archive - archive operations and integrity checks
• VaultArc.Hashing - hashing, compare, export
• VaultArc.Security - safe extraction policies
• VaultArc.Jobs - queue + progress + cancellation
• VaultArc.Services - app-level orchestration facade, JSON persistence, local logger
• VaultArc.Tests - unit tests

Dependencies

• Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK
• CommunityToolkit.Mvvm
• Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
• SharpCompress
• xUnit

Build

1. Install Visual Studio 2022+ with:
   • .NET desktop development workload
   • Windows App SDK / WinUI tooling
2. Open VaultArc.sln (recommended for Visual Studio compatibility)
3. Restore and build:
   • dotnet restore
   • dotnet build

Run

• Set VaultArc.App as startup project
• Launch via Visual Studio or dotnet run --project VaultArc.App

Open / Run From Archive

• Double-click folder entries to navigate into that folder.
• Double-click file entries (or press Enter) to open selected entry behavior.
• Open Selected uses a managed temp session extraction and then opens with Windows defaults.
• Run Selected is enabled only for runnable file types (.exe, .com, .bat, .cmd, .msi, .ps1, .jar, .lnk with warning).
• Runnable/script launches show security warnings before execution.
• Launches use extracted temp paths with proper working directory.

Temp Session Behavior

• Temp sessions live under %LOCALAPPDATA%\VaultArc\Temp\Sessions\<session-id>\.
• Session metadata tracks archive source and launched process ids.
• Old sessions are cleaned up on startup (default 24h policy) unless pinned/active.
• Sessions with running processes are not deleted automatically.
• UI includes action to open the last extracted temp session folder.

Known MVP Limitations

• RAR creation is not supported (read/extract only when compatible)
• 7Z creation is not supported by the current writer backend (read/extract still supported)
• ARC archives require a password and currently use full-file rewrite for rename/delete/save-back operations
• Job queue is in-memory only (history persists only for active session)
• Explorer shell integration is planned, not yet implemented
• Built-in theme customization is stored per-user and applies at runtime (hex validation only; no advanced contrast analyzer yet)

Packaging Notes

• WinUI project is MSIX-ready via Windows App SDK template setup
• Future packaging targets: signed MSIX + optional installer bootstrapper

Security Notes

• Extraction paths are normalized and validated
• Entries resolving outside extraction root are blocked
• Sensitive system extraction locations are blocked by default
• Password values are not logged
• No silent autorun; users must explicitly trigger Open/Run actions
• Script and runnable entry launches show warning prompts

Documentation

• Product specification: PRODUCT_SPEC.md
• Future feature map: FUTURE_FEATURES.md
• Roadmap: VAULTARC_ROADMAP.md