diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index e552d182..7e48d062 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -476,13 +476,37 @@ jobs:
         timeout-minutes: 10
         run: yarn electron:prepare-package
 
-      - name: Package Electron app
+      - name: Make Electron installer
         shell: bash
         timeout-minutes: 30
         run: |
           set -o pipefail
-          yarn electron-forge package 2>&1 | tee forge-output.log
-          ls -la out/
+          yarn electron-forge make --platform=win32 --arch=x64 2>&1 | tee forge-output.log
+          ls -la out/make/
+
+      - name: Verify ASAR runtime files
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          APP_ASAR=$(find out -path '*/resources/app.asar' | head -n 1)
+          KUBO_EXE=$(find out -path '*/resources/app.asar.unpacked/bin/win/ipfs.exe' | head -n 1)
+          SQLITE_MODULE=$(find out -path '*/resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/better-sqlite3/build/Release/better_sqlite3.node' | head -n 1)
+          DATACHANNEL_MODULE=$(find out -path '*/resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/node-datachannel/build/Release/node_datachannel.node' | head -n 1)
+          echo "Found ASAR: $APP_ASAR"
+          echo "Found Kubo: $KUBO_EXE"
+          echo "Found SQLite module: $SQLITE_MODULE"
+          echo "Found data channel module: $DATACHANNEL_MODULE"
+          test -f "$APP_ASAR"
+          test -f "$KUBO_EXE"
+          test -f "$SQLITE_MODULE"
+          test -f "$DATACHANNEL_MODULE"
+          "$KUBO_EXE" version
+
+      - name: Verify Squirrel installer
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          SETUP_EXE=$(find out/make -iname '*setup*.exe' | head -n 1)
+          echo "Found installer: $SETUP_EXE"
+          test -n "$SETUP_EXE" && test -f "$SETUP_EXE" && echo "Installer is valid"
 
       - name: Verify executable
         shell: bash
diff --git a/electron/kubo-paths.js b/electron/kubo-paths.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e44d030c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/electron/kubo-paths.js
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import path from 'node:path';
+
+export const getIpfsBinaryName = (platform = process.platform) => (platform === 'win32' ? 'ipfs.exe' : 'ipfs');
+
+const getPlatformDirectory = (platform) => {
+  if (platform === 'win32') return 'win';
+  if (platform === 'darwin') return 'mac';
+  return 'linux';
+};
+
+export const getBundledKuboPath = (rootPath, platform = process.platform) => path.join(rootPath, 'bin', getPlatformDirectory(platform), getIpfsBinaryName(platform));
+
+export const getPackagedKuboPaths = (resourcesPath, platform = process.platform) => [
+  getBundledKuboPath(path.join(resourcesPath, 'app.asar.unpacked'), platform),
+  getBundledKuboPath(path.join(resourcesPath, 'app'), platform),
+];
diff --git a/electron/kubo-paths.test.js b/electron/kubo-paths.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..da989dee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/electron/kubo-paths.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import path from 'node:path';
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { getPackagedKuboPaths } from './kubo-paths.js';
+
+describe('getPackagedKuboPaths', () => {
+  it.each([
+    ['win32', 'win', 'ipfs.exe'],
+    ['darwin', 'mac', 'ipfs'],
+    ['linux', 'linux', 'ipfs'],
+  ])('prefers the unpacked ASAR binary on %s and retains the loose-package fallback', (platform, platformDirectory, binaryName) => {
+    const resourcesPath = path.join('/tmp', '5chan', 'resources');
+
+    expect(getPackagedKuboPaths(resourcesPath, platform)).toEqual([
+      path.join(resourcesPath, 'app.asar.unpacked', 'bin', platformDirectory, binaryName),
+      path.join(resourcesPath, 'app', 'bin', platformDirectory, binaryName),
+    ]);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/electron/start-ipfs.js b/electron/start-ipfs.js
index 7acf1fb9..f2f5f7fd 100644
--- a/electron/start-ipfs.js
+++ b/electron/start-ipfs.js
@@ -6,22 +6,11 @@ import ps from 'node:process';
 import proxyServer from './proxy-server.js';
 import tcpPortUsed from 'tcp-port-used';
 import { fileURLToPath, pathToFileURL } from 'url';
+import { getBundledKuboPath, getIpfsBinaryName, getPackagedKuboPaths } from './kubo-paths.js';
 import { getPkcDataPath } from './pkc-paths.js';
 const dirname = path.join(path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)));
 const projectRoot = path.join(dirname, '..');
 
-// Get platform-specific binary name
-const getIpfsBinaryName = () => (process.platform === 'win32' ? 'ipfs.exe' : 'ipfs');
-
-// Get platform subdirectory name for bin/ folder
-const getPlatformDir = () => {
-  if (process.platform === 'win32') return 'win';
-  if (process.platform === 'darwin') return 'mac';
-  return 'linux';
-};
-
-const getBundledKuboPath = (rootPath) => path.join(rootPath, 'bin', getPlatformDir(), getIpfsBinaryName());
-
 const downloadBundledIpfsClients = async () => {
   // before-pack.js is excluded from packaged builds, so only load it in dev.
   const { downloadIpfsClients } = await import('./before-pack.js');
@@ -50,17 +39,16 @@ const getKuboPath = async () => {
     throw new Error(`Kubo binary download completed but '${bundledKuboPath}' was not found`);
   } else {
     // In production, the binary is downloaded to bin/<platform>/ipfs by generateAssets hook
-    // With asar: false, files are at resources/app/ instead of resources/app.asar.unpacked
     const appPath = process.resourcesPath;
     const binaryName = getIpfsBinaryName();
 
-    // Try the bin/ directory first (where generateAssets downloads binaries)
-    const binDirPath = getBundledKuboPath(path.join(appPath, 'app'));
-    if (fs.existsSync(binDirPath)) {
-      return binDirPath;
+    // Prefer the unpacked ASAR path, then support older loose-file packages.
+    const packagedBinPaths = getPackagedKuboPaths(appPath);
+    const packagedBinPath = packagedBinPaths.find((candidatePath) => fs.existsSync(candidatePath));
+    if (packagedBinPath) {
+      return packagedBinPath;
     }
 
-    // Fallback: try app.asar.unpacked for ASAR builds (if we ever re-enable ASAR)
     const unpackedPath = path.join(appPath, 'app.asar.unpacked');
     const kuboModulePath = path.join(unpackedPath, 'node_modules', 'kubo');
 
@@ -84,7 +72,7 @@ const getKuboPath = async () => {
         return appKuboBinPath;
       }
 
-      throw new Error(`Could not find kubo binary. Checked: ${binDirPath}, ${kuboBinPath}, ${appKuboBinPath}`);
+      throw new Error(`Could not find kubo binary. Checked: ${[...packagedBinPaths, kuboBinPath, appKuboBinPath].join(', ')}`);
     }
   }
 };
diff --git a/forge.config.js b/forge.config.js
index 341b51d3..21f5a3de 100644
--- a/forge.config.js
+++ b/forge.config.js
@@ -11,10 +11,12 @@ const config = {
     appBundleId: '5chan.desktop',
     icon: './public/icon', // electron-forge adds the correct extension per platform
 
-    // NOTE: asar is disabled because of a bug where electron-packager silently fails
-    // during asar creation with 5chan's large node_modules. The app works fine without it.
-    // TODO: investigate and fix the asar creation issue
-    asar: false,
+    // Keep Squirrel from processing the deeply nested dependency tree as loose files.
+    // Kubo and native modules still need real filesystem paths at runtime.
+    asar: {
+      // Use forward slashes so minimatch also recognizes the glob on Windows.
+      unpackDir: 'bin/**/*',
+    },
 
     // Exclude unnecessary files from the package
     ignore: [
@@ -81,6 +83,13 @@ const config = {
     },
   },
 
+  plugins: [
+    {
+      name: '@electron-forge/plugin-auto-unpack-natives',
+      config: {},
+    },
+  ],
+
   makers: [
     // macOS
     {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index d4ce722b..c8730dd3 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@
     "@electron-forge/maker-dmg": "7.8.0",
     "@electron-forge/maker-squirrel": "7.8.0",
     "@electron-forge/maker-zip": "7.8.0",
+    "@electron-forge/plugin-auto-unpack-natives": "7.8.0",
     "@electron/rebuild": "3.7.2",
     "@reforged/maker-appimage": "5.1.1",
     "@types/lodash": "4.17.24",
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 3341345d..2cf5eff5 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ __metadata:
     "@electron-forge/maker-dmg": "npm:7.8.0"
     "@electron-forge/maker-squirrel": "npm:7.8.0"
     "@electron-forge/maker-zip": "npm:7.8.0"
+    "@electron-forge/plugin-auto-unpack-natives": "npm:7.8.0"
     "@electron/rebuild": "npm:3.7.2"
     "@floating-ui/react": "npm:0.26.1"
     "@pkcprotocol/pkc-js": "npm:0.0.73"
@@ -2054,6 +2055,16 @@ __metadata:
   languageName: node
   linkType: hard
 
+"@electron-forge/plugin-auto-unpack-natives@npm:7.8.0":
+  version: 7.8.0
+  resolution: "@electron-forge/plugin-auto-unpack-natives@npm:7.8.0"
+  dependencies:
+    "@electron-forge/plugin-base": "npm:7.8.0"
+    "@electron-forge/shared-types": "npm:7.8.0"
+  checksum: 10c0/d684741844c8809e20130d737024d060be7e7f4395006065aa6c62461ce6a5c24d86c856370075c426f89304f4ef380dbe2aee51fffe10d3e734c24f28fda811
+  languageName: node
+  linkType: hard
+
 "@electron-forge/plugin-base@npm:7.8.0":
   version: 7.8.0
   resolution: "@electron-forge/plugin-base@npm:7.8.0"