Packaging a Spring Boot Application into an EXE Installer with exe4j and Inno Setup

Introduction

Recently I built a combined front‑end/back‑end Spring Boot project and needed to deliver it as a simple executable for non‑technical users. After encountering many issues, I documented the entire process so readers can follow the steps and avoid the same problems.

Preparation

A bug‑free, runnable JAR file.

exe4j (tool to convert JAR to EXE). Download link: https://pan.baidu.com/s/127GG90sLOQR5XXTJhM0a1A, extraction code: 44im . Registration code: L-g782dn2d-1f1yqxx1rv1sqd .

Inno Setup (installer creator). The same Baidu Cloud link provides the installer.

Creating the EXE with exe4j

Open exe4j and proceed through the wizard:

Select "Java to EXE".

Enter the application name and output path.

Choose the launch mode and enable 32‑bit/64‑bit compatibility.

In the VM parameters field add: -Dfile.encoding=utf-8

Configure the JRE: point to a local JRE directory so the generated EXE can locate it without requiring a separate JDK installation.

Select "Client VM" and finish the wizard, which produces demo.exe on the desktop.

Packaging with Inno Setup

Launch Inno Setup (File → New) and follow the wizard:

Enter application name, version, and other basic information.

Accept default settings for most pages.

On the "Application Files" page, add the previously generated demo.exe .

Proceed through language selection and output path configuration.

In the final script, include the bundled JRE with a line such as: Source: " local‑JRE‑path \*"; DestDir: "{app}\{#MyJreName}"; Flags: ignoreversion recursesubdirs createallsubdirs

Compile the script to produce setup.exe , which installs both the EXE and the JRE on the target machine.

After installation, the user can run the program directly without any Java environment installed.