Server Buddy

Server Buddy is an Electron desktop app for administering a Windows server from a single local dashboard. It focuses on practical VPS and RDP maintenance tasks: changing RDP settings, adding firewall rules, testing proxies, watching processes, toggling Windows security features, and sending operational alerts to Discord.

This repository is published as a portfolio-quality archive of a real internal tool. The code is authentic, the app behavior is grounded in the implementation that is present here, and the project is best read as a legacy desktop operations app rather than a current production product.

Why this repo is worth browsing

• Real Windows automation: registry edits, firewall changes, password resets, process management, and activation tooling wired through Electron IPC.
• Legacy desktop architecture: a single Electron shell coordinating privileged OS commands, background services, local persistence, and renderer menus.
• Operational feature set: proxy testing, process watching, speed tests, Discord alerts, and optional remote command / socket integrations.
• Honest preservation: this repo documents what still works locally, what depends on retired services, and which bundled artifacts come from third parties.

What the app actually does

Security and RDP controls

• Reads the current RDP port from the Windows registry.
• Changes the RDP port and adds a matching inbound firewall rule.
• Changes the current RDP user's password with net user.
• Generates a random password and copies it to the clipboard.
• Adds inbound Windows Firewall allow rules for specific IP addresses.
• Adds inbound Windows Firewall block rules for specific IP addresses.
• Includes a handler for renaming the RDP/local user, although the UI path is commented out.

Windows system controls

• Enables or disables Windows Defender real-time monitoring.
• Enables or disables Windows Firewall.
• Enables or disables Windows Error Reporting.
• Enables or disables automatic Windows Updates by writing policy registry values.
• Syncs server time.
• Checks Windows activation / trial expiration.
• Runs the Windows trial re-arm command.
• Exposes a Windows activation action from the UI.

Proxy testing

• Lets you create a proxy group in the UI.
• Accepts proxies in host:port and host:port:user:pass formats.
• Bulk imports proxies by paste.
• Tests proxies against a chosen target URL using curl.
• Measures connect time and color-codes results by latency.
• Lets you copy, clear, and filter proxy lists by response time.

App and process management

• Scans running processes with PowerShell.
• Groups duplicate process names and counts instances.
• Filters out a long list of system/background processes.
• Lets you search the discovered app list.
• Lets you terminate selected processes with taskkill.
• Lets you maintain a watch list of apps to monitor.
• Re-checks watched apps on a configurable interval.
• Marks watched apps as Running or Offline in the UI.
• Sends a Discord webhook alert when a watched app goes offline.

Monitoring dashboard

• Displays live CPU, RAM, and network usage in the main UI.
• Reports static system information including CPU, memory, OS, and network adapter details.
• Runs bandwidth tests with selectable test locations.
• Shows ping, download, upload, ISP, and selected speed test server details.

Settings and alerts

• Stores a local computer nickname.
• Stores a Discord webhook URL and sends a test webhook.
• Persists alert preferences in local storage.
• Supports toggles for:
  • RDP connect alerts
  • Server down alerts
  • CPU overload alerts
  • RAM overload alerts

Remote service integration

• Can log into a legacy remote web service when SERVER_BUDDY_API_URL is configured.
• Can open a persistent Socket.IO connection when SERVER_BUDDY_SOCKET_URL is configured.
• Sends heartbeat and machine metadata after login.
• Receives remote commands for app watching, app stop-watching, and app termination.
• Uploads some machine history / report data back to the service.

Platform requirements

• Windows is effectively required. The app calls PowerShell, net user, taskkill, slmgr.vbs, Windows registry paths, and Windows Firewall commands throughout the code.
• Administrator privileges are expected. On startup the app warns if it is not running elevated.
• Node.js and npm are required for local development.
• Google Chrome is expected at its default install path for some browser-dependent flows.

Running locally

npm install
npm start

The app is an Electron application. Development and packaging scripts are defined in package.json. Optional legacy integrations are documented in .env.example.

Important caveats

• This code depends on legacy external services and endpoints that may no longer exist or may not be usable without the original backend.
• Some features assume bundled helper files and Windows-specific executables are present.
• The Alerts panel exists in the UI but is mostly a placeholder; the actual alert configuration lives in Settings and process-watch webhook behavior.
• The app includes update, login, and remote-control hooks that were part of the original product ecosystem.
• This repository should not be treated as a hardened or actively maintained security tool.

Repository guide

• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md: code tour and subsystem overview.
• CONTRIBUTING.md: expectations for forks, PRs, and historical fixes.
• SECURITY.md: security disclosure and support policy.
• THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md: licensing and provenance notes for bundled third-party artifacts.

High-level structure

• main.js: Electron main process, Windows command execution, login, socket connection, speed tests, and IPC handlers.
• renderer/app.js: renderer bootstrap and shared UI helpers.
• renderer/menus/security.js: RDP and firewall controls.
• renderer/menus/proxytest.js: proxy group management and proxy testing UI.
• renderer/menus/apps.js: process list, watch list, and kill actions.
• renderer/menus/system.js: system toggles and hardware info.
• renderer/menus/tools.js: Windows utility actions and speed tests.
• renderer/menus/settings.js: nickname, webhook, and alert preferences.

Status

This repository is intentionally presented as an archived reference implementation of a Windows server utility app built with Electron. It is useful as a code sample, maintenance artifact, and portfolio project, but not as a drop-in supported product.