diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 766ff97ea9..06cbd3ca0e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -812,13 +812,27 @@ jobs:
           cd dist
           tar -czf "kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.tar.gz" kandev
           shasum -a 256 "kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.tar.gz" > "kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.tar.gz.sha256"
+          # Windows package managers cannot consume the tarball: winget's
+          # InstallerType enum accepts zip as its only archive format, and
+          # Chocolatey's unzip helper needs two 7-Zip passes for a .tar.gz.
+          # The zip is published alongside the tarball, not instead of it —
+          # Homebrew and the npm runtime packages still read the tarball.
+          if [ "${{ matrix.goos }}" = "windows" ]; then
+            zip -qr "kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.zip" kandev
+            shasum -a 256 "kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.zip" > "kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.zip.sha256"
+          fi
 
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@330a01c490aca151604b8cf639adc76d48f6c5d4 # v5
         with:
           name: bundle-${{ matrix.platform }}
+          # The zip entries match nothing on the four non-Windows platforms.
+          # if-no-files-found is left at its default so a missing tarball is
+          # still an error.
           path: |
             dist/kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.tar.gz
             dist/kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.tar.gz.sha256
+            dist/kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.zip
+            dist/kandev-${{ matrix.platform }}.zip.sha256
 
   build-desktop:
     name: Build desktop app (${{ matrix.platform }})
@@ -1883,6 +1897,17 @@ jobs:
               exit 1
             fi
           done
+          # The Windows zip is the only archive winget and Chocolatey can read.
+          # Losing it would break those channels while every other check here
+          # still passed, so it is verified explicitly.
+          for artifact in \
+            dist/release-assets/kandev-windows-x64.zip \
+            dist/release-assets/kandev-windows-x64.zip.sha256; do
+            if [ ! -f "$artifact" ]; then
+              echo "Missing required Windows artifact: $artifact" >&2
+              exit 1
+            fi
+          done
           bash "$DESKTOP_ASSET_VERIFIER" dist/release-assets
           ls -lh dist/release-assets
 
@@ -1923,6 +1948,8 @@ jobs:
             dist/release-assets/kandev-macos-*.tar.gz.sha256
             dist/release-assets/kandev-windows-*.tar.gz
             dist/release-assets/kandev-windows-*.tar.gz.sha256
+            dist/release-assets/kandev-windows-*.zip
+            dist/release-assets/kandev-windows-*.zip.sha256
             dist/release-assets/kandev-desktop-*
             dist/release-assets/latest.json
           preserve_order: true