chore: upgrade to @electron-forge v8 + windows-2025 runner when forge 8 stable ships

[nerdCopter]

AI Generated issue-ticket

Context

PR #609 (merged 2026-06-18) restored Windows CI by downgrading the runner from `windows-2025` to `windows-2022`.
This is a temporary workaround. The permanent fix requires two upstream releases that do not exist yet.

Root cause (fully investigated — no re-investigation needed)

The `windows-2025` GitHub Actions runner image was updated ~2026-06-16 to install
Visual Studio 2025 (version 18) at `C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\Enterprise`.

`@electron-forge@7.x` uses `@electron/rebuild@^3.7.x` which bundles `@electron/node-gyp@10.2.0-electron.1`.
That version's `find-visualstudio.js` only maps VS major versions 15/16/17 to years 2017/2019/2022.
Version 18 (VS 2025) is unrecognized, triggering `ERR_CHILD_PROCESS_STDIO_MAXBUFFER` in the PowerShell
VS-enumeration path and falling through to a path it cannot use — breaking `@serialport/bindings-cpp`
rebuild during `electron-forge make`.

No version of `node-gyp` (including `@electron/node-gyp@10.2.0-electron.2`, `node-gyp@12`, `node-gyp@13`)
maps VS major version 18 yet. This is an upstream gap across the whole node-gyp ecosystem.

The permanent fix (two steps, in order)

Step 1 — wait for `@electron-forge@8` stable release

`@electron-forge@8` (`8.0.0-alpha.9` as of 2026-06-18, milestone has 15 open issues, no due date)
switches `@electron/rebuild` from `3.x` (using `@electron/node-gyp`) to `4.x` (using standard
`node-gyp@^12.x`). Standard `node-gyp` has a larger upstream community and will gain VS 18 support sooner.

Check: https://github.com/electron/forge/releases
Currently: `latest = 7.11.2`, `alpha = 8.0.0-alpha.9`

Step 2 — verify `node-gyp@12+` maps VS 18 (versionMajor 18 → versionYear 2025)

The fix in `find-visualstudio.js` is a one-liner addition:

if (ret.versionMajor === 18) { ret.versionYear = 2025 }
// plus getMSBuild / getToolset entries for 2025

Check: https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp/blob/main/lib/find-visualstudio.js

Once both are satisfied:

Implementation checklist

• Upgrade all `@electron-forge/*` packages in `package.json` from `7.x` to latest `8.x`
• Run `yarn install` and resolve any forge 8 breaking changes (plugin/maker API may differ)
• In `.github/workflows/build.yml`, change `windows-2022` back to `windows-2025` (both matrix entries, lines ~34–39)
• Verify `@serialport/bindings-cpp` rebuilds cleanly on `windows-2025` CI
• The `forge.config.js` `ignoreModules` entries for `exe-icon-extractor` and `usb` remain valid — keep them

Files to change

• `package.json` — `@electron-forge/*` version bumps
• `.github/workflows/build.yml` — `windows-2022` → `windows-2025` (both matrix entries)
• `forge.config.js` — no changes needed

Related

• PR fix(forge): skip exe-icon-extractor rebuild on all platforms #609 — the `windows-2022` workaround this issue supersedes
• `@electron/node-gyp` tracking: https://github.com/electron/node-gyp
• `exe-icon-extractor` upstream: https://github.com/bitdisaster/exe-icon-extractor