diff --git a/.github/workflows/companion-build.yml b/.github/workflows/companion-build.yml
index 0ff4ef8..9e26705 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/companion-build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/companion-build.yml
@@ -67,32 +67,46 @@ jobs:
       # notarized macOS artifacts come from macos-release.yml, which supplies
       # the real certificate secrets, and desktop-macos.yml, which verifies
       # the result with `codesign --verify --deep --strict`.
+      # --verbose is deliberate. tauri-bundler runs candle.exe/light.exe via
+      # output_ok(), which pipes their stdout+stderr and re-emits each line at
+      # log::debug! level, then discards it on failure in favour of a bare
+      # "failed to run <exe>". Without --verbose a WiX linker failure surfaces
+      # with no LGHT diagnostic at all, which is unactionable from CI logs.
       - name: Build Tauri app
         working-directory: nclaw/desktop/src-tauri
-        run: cargo tauri build
+        run: cargo tauri build --verbose
 
+      # Bundles land in the CARGO WORKSPACE target dir. desktop/src-tauri is a
+      # member of the root Cargo.toml workspace, so cargo writes to
+      # <repo>/target/, NOT <repo>/desktop/src-tauri/target/. The old paths
+      # matched nothing: upload-artifact only warns ("No files were found")
+      # and still exits 0, so the linux and macos legs reported success while
+      # uploading zero artifacts.
       - name: Upload Linux artifacts
         if: matrix.platform == 'ubuntu-latest'
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7
         with:
           name: companion-${{ matrix.target }}
+          if-no-files-found: error
           path: |
-            nclaw/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/appimage/*.AppImage
-            nclaw/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/deb/*.deb
+            nclaw/target/release/bundle/appimage/*.AppImage
+            nclaw/target/release/bundle/deb/*.deb
 
       - name: Upload Windows artifacts
         if: matrix.platform == 'windows-latest'
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7
         with:
           name: companion-${{ matrix.target }}
+          if-no-files-found: error
           path: |
-            nclaw/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/msi/*.msi
-            nclaw/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/*.exe
+            nclaw/target/release/bundle/msi/*.msi
+            nclaw/target/release/bundle/nsis/*.exe
 
       - name: Upload macOS artifacts
         if: matrix.platform == 'macos-latest'
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7
         with:
           name: companion-${{ matrix.target }}
+          if-no-files-found: error
           path: |
-            nclaw/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/dmg/*.dmg
+            nclaw/target/release/bundle/dmg/*.dmg
diff --git a/desktop/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json b/desktop/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
index b0eb085..7dd5b8b 100644
--- a/desktop/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
+++ b/desktop/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
@@ -72,6 +72,15 @@
     "macOS": {
       "minimumSystemVersion": "10.15",
       "entitlements": "entitlements.plist"
+    },
+    "windows": {
+      "wix": {
+        "language": {
+          "en-US": {
+            "localePath": "wix/en-US.wxl"
+          }
+        }
+      }
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/desktop/src-tauri/wix/en-US.wxl b/desktop/src-tauri/wix/en-US.wxl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dea95c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/desktop/src-tauri/wix/en-US.wxl
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+<!--
+  Forces the MSI *database* code page to UTF-8 (65001).
+
+  The product name is "ɳClaw", whose first character is U+0273 LATIN SMALL
+  LETTER N WITH RETROFLEX HOOK, the eta the brand uses for display names.
+  WiX defaults an MSI's database code page to the culture's ANSI code page,
+  and tauri's languages.json maps en-US to 1252. U+0273 has no representation
+  in 1252, so light.exe rejected every string carrying the product name:
+
+    main.wxs(23) : error LGHT0311 : A string was provided with characters
+    that are not available in the specified database code page '1252'.
+
+  LGHT0311 names WixLocalization/@Codepage as one of the supported places to
+  change that code page, which is the entire purpose of this file.
+
+  The summary information stream is deliberately NOT switched to 65001. It
+  has its own, stricter rule:
+
+    main.wxs(23) : error LGHT0349 : The code page '65001' is invalid for
+    summary information. You must specify an ANSI code page.
+
+  So the TauriCodepage localization string is left alone and tauri appends
+  its 1252 default, which Package/@SummaryCodepage consumes. That is safe
+  because tauri's Package element carries no product name: its only text
+  attribute is Keywords="Installer". Nothing non-ASCII reaches the summary
+  stream, so the database and the summary stream legitimately differ.
+
+  tauri-bundler reads this file verbatim and then appends any default String
+  element whose Id it cannot already find, so only the one value that must
+  differ from the defaults is set here.
+-->
+<WixLocalization
+    Culture="en-us"
+    Codepage="65001"
+    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/localization">
+</WixLocalization>