Services
Diagnose, repair, modernise, keep alive
Every engagement starts with something small, written and fixed in price. Projects are only quoted once someone has actually read the code, which is why we can hold a price at all.
Prices are guide prices, excluding VAT, for a typical application. We confirm a firm figure after a short scoping call. Work is quoted in pounds, euros or dollars.
Assessments
Fixed price. Five days to five weeks. You keep the report whether or not you hire us again.
Windows Application Health Check — Focused
One question, answered properly. “Why is it slow?” “Can we ship on .NET 10?” “Will it run on Windows 11 and Arm64?” “Is our update path safe?” Written report and a recorded readout.
Windows Application Health Check — Comprehensive
Architecture, code quality, performance hotspots, memory and threading risk, dependency and runtime support status, security posture, packaging and update chain, build and test health, and how much of the system lives in one person’s head. Scored against a published rubric.
Technical due diligence
The comprehensive check written for a buyer, lender or board: risk ratings, remediation cost estimates, licensing and open-source exposure, team interviews, and a summary a non-engineer can act on. Built for the £5m–£25m deals that get priced out of conventional technology diligence.
Modernisation discovery
For WinForms to WPF or WinUI, .NET Framework to .NET 10, VB6 or Access to .NET, or WPF to cross-platform. An options paper that costs stay, upgrade, migrate and rewrite honestly, a recommended route, a pilot slice built to prove it works, and a phased plan you can take to any supplier — including one that isn’t us.
Performance, memory and threading investigation
Profiling-led root-cause analysis of the screens and workflows that hurt: startup cost, render and binding cost, dispatcher contention, allocation and leak analysis, async and locking defects. One written root cause per symptom, with a fix plan and measured targets.
Packaging, deployment and update clinic
MSI, MSIX, ClickOnce, xcopy or a custom updater — decided by how deeply you touch the operating system and who owns updates, not by fashion. Code signing, silent install for managed estates, staged rollout, rollback and air-gapped distribution. You get a decision record and a working reference pipeline.
Compatibility readiness review
Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, Arm64, high-DPI and multi-monitor, .NET 10 and the current Windows App SDK — tested in a lab against your build, not against a checklist. Findings arrive with reproductions and fixes.
Desktop accessibility audit
EN 301 549 and Section 508 as they actually apply to a Windows client, tested through UI Automation and with assistive technology: keyboard operability, focus order, names and roles, contrast, magnification and high contrast mode. Findings map to the standard, ready to populate a conformance report.
Cyber Resilience Act readiness review
For anyone selling Windows software into the EU. SBOM generation in SPDX or CycloneDX, vulnerability intake and handling, a secure and signed update chain, end-of-life dependency exposure, a support-period policy, and a reporting playbook for the 24 and 72-hour clocks. Delivered with a compliance partner where the paperwork needs one.
Projects
Quoted from an assessment, so the number holds. Delivered by the principal, with vetted contractors on anything longer than about six weeks.
.NET 10 upgrade
From .NET Framework or from .NET 6, 8 or 9. Third-party control retargeting, DPI and designer fixes, build and installer changes, and a regression pass that proves the application still does what it did.
Stalled migration rescue
Someone started an upgrade with an AI agent or an offshore team and it is now half-converted and not building. We triage what is there, stabilise it, finish it and document it.
Incremental UI modernisation
WinForms hosted inside WPF a screen at a time, a Fluent refresh for existing WPF, or WinUI through XAML Islands where it genuinely pays. MVVM, dependency injection and testability introduced as you go, not in a big bang.
Performance remediation sprints
Two-week sprints against the fix plan from the investigation, each closing with a measured before-and-after on the same hardware.
Installer and update pipeline
A signed MSIX or custom-updater pipeline wired into your CI, with release channels, staged rollout, rollback and guidance for enterprise deployment teams.
Arm64 port and validation
A native Arm64 build, dependency replacement, P/Invoke and driver review, and validation on real Snapdragon hardware — so “does it run natively on Arm?” stops being a procurement problem.
Accessibility remediation
The fixes from the audit, plus automated UI Automation checks added to your build so it does not regress, plus a drafted conformance report.
Architecture refactor
Decoupling the UI from the business logic, redesigning the threading model, drawing module boundaries and putting test scaffolding in place. Usually the precondition for everything else on an older codebase.
VB6 or Access rebuild
Converter- and AI-assisted rebuild onto modern .NET with a designed architecture and a proper data layer — not a line-for-line translation that carries 1998 forward. Partner-supported on large estates.
Three — Keep it alive
Support plans
A named engineer who knows your application, with hours we can actually keep. Every plan starts with a short paid transition — access, build, runbook — so nobody is guessing on day one.
Watching brief
£1,500
per month, excluding VAT
- Monthly regression check against Windows and runtime updates
- Security advisories triaged against your dependencies
- One engineering day a month for small changes
- Next-business-day response
Maintained
£3,500
per month, excluding VAT
- Everything in Bronze
- Two engineering days a month
- Quarterly health report against the Health Check rubric
- Release management for patch builds
- Four-hour response on critical issues, UK and EU hours
Owned
£7,500
per month, excluding VAT
- Everything in Silver
- Four engineering days a month
- Named backup engineer
- A defined afternoon window for US East Coast teams
- Annual compatibility and CRA evidence refresh
- One-hour response on critical issues
Also available
Start with a diagnosis, not a proposal
A Health Check is a fixed price, a fixed duration and a written report you own — whether or not you ever hire us again.