We now have tools to get files from an old scanner (that requires an open relay) but downloading files over HTTP with a web browser can be a drag (with steps to keep unsafe documents off your computer) and setting up HTTPS on your internal network is an absolute pain. Finally, serving files with Samba can work but it can be slow and awkward to use.

Fear not, now we have the Huck scan retriever for Windows. This minimal Kotlin/Compose Desktop app is just what we need for browsing and downloading scans through lambada (created with Go) or scandalous (created with Ruby). The main screen is similar to a Samba share but much faster and easier to use.

On launch, huck asks for a hostname or IP address (e.g. 10.0.1.111) and remembers it for next time. If the server can't be reached, it shows an inline error and lets you retry or change the server. Once connected, click a thumbnail to see its date and size in the footer, and double-click to save it -- a native Save panel opens with the scan's name and ~/Downloads already selected, so confirming as-is saves it there just like before, but renaming it or picking a different folder is just as easy. Either way, once it's saved it opens in whatever app handles PDFs, the same as double-clicking a file on a mounted network share. While it saves you'll see a brief "Saving…" note, and once it's done the footer reads "File … saved." and stays that way until you click something else, so it's hard to miss.

huck talks GET /files.json and expects a path field per entry. Requires a matching server: scandalous 0.3.0+ or lambada's lambada-web 2.0.0+.

Building from source and the project layout moved to docs/DEVELOPER.md.

Grab the latest .msi from the Releases page and double-click it -- Next, Next, Finish, like any other Windows installer. The .msi isn't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may show an "Unknown publisher" warning on first run -- click More info then Run anyway to continue.

Use zouk instead -- the native Swift version of this same app.