diff --git a/electron_app/src/electron-main.js b/electron_app/src/electron-main.js
index 85955392aa..e11b3233ba 100644
--- a/electron_app/src/electron-main.js
+++ b/electron_app/src/electron-main.js
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 Copyright 2016 Aviral Dasgupta
 Copyright 2016 OpenMarket Ltd
 Copyright 2017 Michael Telatynski <7t3chguy@gmail.com>
+Copyright 2018 New Vector Ltd
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -23,8 +24,9 @@ const checkSquirrelHooks = require('./squirrelhooks');
 if (checkSquirrelHooks()) return;
 
 const argv = require('minimist')(process.argv);
-const {app, ipcMain, powerSaveBlocker, BrowserWindow, Menu} = require('electron');
+const {app, ipcMain, powerSaveBlocker, BrowserWindow, Menu, autoUpdater} = require('electron');
 const AutoLaunch = require('auto-launch');
+const path = require('path');
 
 const tray = require('./tray');
 const vectorMenu = require('./vectormenu');
@@ -97,6 +99,61 @@ ipcMain.on('app_onAction', function(ev, payload) {
     }
 });
 
+autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', (ev, releaseNotes, releaseName, releaseDate, updateURL) => {
+    if (!mainWindow) return;
+    // forward to renderer
+    mainWindow.webContents.send('update-downloaded', {
+        releaseNotes,
+        releaseName,
+        releaseDate,
+        updateURL,
+    });
+});
+
+ipcMain.on('ipcCall', function(ev, payload) {
+    if (!mainWindow) return;
+
+    const args = payload.args || [];
+    let ret;
+
+    switch (payload.name) {
+        case 'getUpdateFeedUrl':
+            ret = autoUpdater.getFeedURL();
+            break;
+        case 'getAutoLaunchEnabled':
+            ret = launcher.isEnabled;
+            break;
+        case 'setAutoLaunchEnabled':
+            if (args[0]) {
+                launcher.enable();
+            } else {
+                launcher.disable();
+            }
+            break;
+        case 'getAppVersion':
+            ret = app.getVersion();
+            break;
+        case 'focusWindow':
+            if (mainWindow.isMinimized()) {
+                mainWindow.restore();
+            } else if (!mainWindow.isVisible()) {
+                mainWindow.show();
+            } else {
+                mainWindow.focus();
+            }
+        default:
+            mainWindow.webContents.send('ipcReply', {
+                id: payload.id,
+                error: new Error("Unknown IPC Call: "+payload.name),
+            });
+            return;
+    }
+
+    mainWindow.webContents.send('ipcReply', {
+        id: payload.id,
+        reply: ret,
+    });
+});
 
 app.commandLine.appendSwitch('--enable-usermedia-screen-capturing');
 
@@ -126,40 +183,6 @@ const launcher = new AutoLaunch({
     },
 });
 
-const settings = {
-    'auto-launch': {
-        get: launcher.isEnabled,
-        set: function(bool) {
-            if (bool) {
-                return launcher.enable();
-            } else {
-                return launcher.disable();
-            }
-        },
-    },
-};
-
-ipcMain.on('settings_get', async function(ev) {
-    const data = {};
-
-    try {
-        await Promise.all(Object.keys(settings).map(async function (setting) {
-            data[setting] = await settings[setting].get();
-        }));
-
-        ev.sender.send('settings', data);
-    } catch (e) {
-        console.error(e);
-    }
-});
-
-ipcMain.on('settings_set', function(ev, key, value) {
-    console.log(key, value);
-    if (settings[key] && settings[key].set) {
-        settings[key].set(value);
-    }
-});
-
 app.on('ready', () => {
     if (argv['devtools']) {
         try {
@@ -191,6 +214,7 @@ app.on('ready', () => {
         defaultHeight: 768,
     });
 
+    const preloadScript = path.normalize(`${__dirname}/preload.js`);
     mainWindow = global.mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
         icon: iconPath,
         show: false,
@@ -200,6 +224,18 @@ app.on('ready', () => {
         y: mainWindowState.y,
         width: mainWindowState.width,
         height: mainWindowState.height,
+        webPreferences: {
+            preload: preloadScript,
+            nodeIntegration: false,
+            sandbox: true,
+            enableRemoteModule: false,
+            // We don't use this: it's useful for the preload script to
+            // share a context with the main page so we can give select
+            // objects to the main page. The sandbox option isolates the
+            // main page from the background script.
+            contextIsolation: false,
+            webgl: false,
+        },
     });
     mainWindow.loadURL(`file://${__dirname}/../../webapp/index.html`);
     Menu.setApplicationMenu(vectorMenu);
diff --git a/src/vector/platform/index.js b/electron_app/src/preload.js
similarity index 61%
rename from src/vector/platform/index.js
rename to electron_app/src/preload.js
index 9071420015..4c926d2145 100644
--- a/src/vector/platform/index.js
+++ b/electron_app/src/preload.js
@@ -1,8 +1,5 @@
-// @flow
-
 /*
-Copyright 2016 Aviral Dasgupta
-Copyright 2016 OpenMarket Ltd
+Copyright 2018 New Vector Ltd
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -17,13 +14,8 @@ See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 limitations under the License.
 */
 
-let Platform = null;
+const { ipcRenderer } = require('electron');
 
-if (window && window.process && window.process && window.process.type === 'renderer') {
-    // we're running inside electron
-    Platform = require('./ElectronPlatform');
-} else {
-    Platform = require('./WebPlatform');
-}
+// expose ipcRenderer to the renderer process
+window.ipcRenderer = ipcRenderer;
 
-export default Platform;
diff --git a/src/vector/index.js b/src/vector/index.js
index 32a88f363d..9d05aa347c 100644
--- a/src/vector/index.js
+++ b/src/vector/index.js
@@ -47,7 +47,9 @@ import * as languageHandler from 'matrix-react-sdk/lib/languageHandler';
 import url from 'url';
 
 import {parseQs, parseQsFromFragment} from './url_utils';
-import Platform from './platform';
+
+import ElectronPlatform from './platform/ElectronPlatform';
+import WebPlatform from './platform/WebPlatform';
 
 import MatrixClientPeg from 'matrix-react-sdk/lib/MatrixClientPeg';
 import SettingsStore from "matrix-react-sdk/lib/settings/SettingsStore";
@@ -219,8 +221,15 @@ async function loadApp() {
     const fragparts = parseQsFromFragment(window.location);
     const params = parseQs(window.location);
 
-    // set the platform for react sdk (our Platform object automatically picks the right one)
-    PlatformPeg.set(new Platform());
+    // set the platform for react sdk
+    //if (navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf('electron') > 0) {
+    if (window.ipcRenderer) {
+        console.log("Using Electron platform");
+        PlatformPeg.set(new ElectronPlatform());
+    } else {
+        console.log("Using Web platform");
+        PlatformPeg.set(new WebPlatform());
+    }
 
     // Load the config file. First try to load up a domain-specific config of the
     // form "config.$domain.json" and if that fails, fall back to config.json.
diff --git a/src/vector/platform/ElectronPlatform.js b/src/vector/platform/ElectronPlatform.js
index 8b384b20d1..b116cd6370 100644
--- a/src/vector/platform/ElectronPlatform.js
+++ b/src/vector/platform/ElectronPlatform.js
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 /*
 Copyright 2016 Aviral Dasgupta
 Copyright 2016 OpenMarket Ltd
+Copyright 2018 New Vector Ltd
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -21,44 +22,24 @@ import VectorBasePlatform, {updateCheckStatusEnum} from './VectorBasePlatform';
 import dis from 'matrix-react-sdk/lib/dispatcher';
 import { _t } from 'matrix-react-sdk/lib/languageHandler';
 import Promise from 'bluebird';
-import {remote, ipcRenderer, desktopCapturer} from 'electron';
 import rageshake from 'matrix-react-sdk/lib/rageshake/rageshake';
 
-remote.autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', onUpdateDownloaded);
-
-// try to flush the rageshake logs to indexeddb before quit.
-ipcRenderer.on('before-quit', function() {
-    console.log('riot-desktop closing');
-    rageshake.flush();
-});
-
-function onUpdateDownloaded(ev: Event, releaseNotes: string, ver: string, date: Date, updateURL: string) {
-    dis.dispatch({
-        action: 'new_version',
-        currentVersion: remote.app.getVersion(),
-        newVersion: ver,
-        releaseNotes: releaseNotes,
-    });
-}
-
 function platformFriendlyName(): string {
-    console.log(window.process);
-    switch (window.process.platform) {
-        case 'darwin':
-            return 'macOS';
-        case 'freebsd':
-            return 'FreeBSD';
-        case 'openbsd':
-            return 'OpenBSD';
-        case 'sunos':
-            return 'SunOS';
-        case 'win32':
-            return 'Windows';
-        default:
-            // Sorry, Linux users: you get lumped into here,
-            // but only because Linux's capitalisation is
-            // normal. We do care about you.
-            return window.process.platform[0].toUpperCase() + window.process.platform.slice(1);
+    // used to use window.process but the same info is available here
+    if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Macintosh')) {
+        return 'macOS';
+    } else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('FreeBSD')) {
+        return 'FreeBSD';
+    } else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('OpenBSD')) {
+        return 'OpenBSD';
+    } else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('SunOS')) {
+        return 'SunOS';
+    } else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Windows')) {
+        return 'Windows';
+    } else if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Linux')) {
+        return 'Linux';
+    } else {
+        return 'Unknown';
     }
 }
 
@@ -85,9 +66,11 @@ function getUpdateCheckStatus(status) {
 export default class ElectronPlatform extends VectorBasePlatform {
     constructor() {
         super();
-        dis.register(_onAction);
-        this.updatable = Boolean(remote.autoUpdater.getFeedURL());
 
+        this._pendingIpcCalls = {};
+        this._nextIpcCallId = 0;
+
+        dis.register(_onAction);
         /*
             IPC Call `check_updates` returns:
             true if there is an update available
@@ -103,10 +86,28 @@ export default class ElectronPlatform extends VectorBasePlatform {
             this.showUpdateCheck = false;
         });
 
+        // try to flush the rageshake logs to indexeddb before quit.
+        ipcRenderer.on('before-quit', function() {
+            console.log('riot-desktop closing');
+            rageshake.flush();
+        });
+
+        ipcRenderer.on('ipcReply', this._onIpcReply.bind(this));
+        ipcRenderer.on('update-downloaded', this.onUpdateDownloaded.bind(this));
+
         this.startUpdateCheck = this.startUpdateCheck.bind(this);
         this.stopUpdateCheck = this.stopUpdateCheck.bind(this);
     }
 
+    async onUpdateDownloaded(ev, updateInfo) {
+        dis.dispatch({
+            action: 'new_version',
+            currentVersion: await this.getAppVersion(),
+            newVersion: updateInfo,
+            releaseNotes: updateInfo.releaseNotes,
+        });
+    }
+
     getHumanReadableName(): string {
         return 'Electron Platform'; // no translation required: only used for analytics
     }
@@ -133,7 +134,7 @@ export default class ElectronPlatform extends VectorBasePlatform {
         // maybe we should pass basic styling (italics, bold, underline) through from MD
         // we only have to strip out < and > as the spec doesn't include anything about things like &amp;
         // so we shouldn't assume that all implementations will treat those properly. Very basic tag parsing is done.
-        if (window.process.platform === 'linux') {
+        if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Linux')) {
             msg = msg.replace(/</g, '&lt;').replace(/>/g, '&gt;');
         }
 
@@ -147,17 +148,13 @@ export default class ElectronPlatform extends VectorBasePlatform {
             },
         );
 
-        notification.onclick = function() {
+        notification.onclick = () => {
             dis.dispatch({
                 action: 'view_room',
                 room_id: room.roomId,
             });
             global.focus();
-            const win = remote.getCurrentWindow();
-
-            if (win.isMinimized()) win.restore();
-            else if (!win.isVisible()) win.show();
-            else win.focus();
+            this._ipcCall('focusWindow');
         };
 
         return notification;
@@ -171,8 +168,25 @@ export default class ElectronPlatform extends VectorBasePlatform {
         notif.close();
     }
 
-    getAppVersion(): Promise<string> {
-        return Promise.resolve(remote.app.getVersion());
+    async getAppVersion(): Promise<string> {
+        return await this._ipcCall('getAppVersion');
+    }
+
+    supportsAutoLaunch() {
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    async getAutoLaunchEnabled() {
+        return await this._ipcCall('getAutoLaunchEnabled');
+    }
+
+    async setAutoLaunchEnabled(enabled) {
+        return await this._ipcCall('setAutoLaunchEnabled', enabled);
+    }
+
+    async canSelfUpdate(): boolean {
+        const feedUrl = await this._ipcCall('getUpdateFeedUrl');
+        return Boolean(feedUrl);
     }
 
     startUpdateCheck() {
@@ -197,52 +211,43 @@ export default class ElectronPlatform extends VectorBasePlatform {
         return null;
     }
 
-    isElectron(): boolean { return true; }
-
     requestNotificationPermission(): Promise<string> {
         return Promise.resolve('granted');
     }
 
     reload() {
-        remote.getCurrentWebContents().reload();
+        // we used to remote to the main process to get it to
+        // reload the webcontents, but in practice this is unnecessary:
+        // the normal way works fine.
+        window.location.reload(false);
     }
 
-    /* BEGIN copied and slightly-modified code
-     * setupScreenSharingForIframe function from:
-     * https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet-electron-utils
-     * Copied directly here to avoid the need for a native electron module for
-     * 'just a bit of JavaScript'
-     * NOTE: Apache v2.0 licensed
-     */
-    setupScreenSharingForIframe(iframe: Object) {
-        iframe.contentWindow.JitsiMeetElectron = {
-            /**
-             * Get sources available for screensharing. The callback is invoked
-             * with an array of DesktopCapturerSources.
-             *
-             * @param {Function} callback - The success callback.
-             * @param {Function} errorCallback - The callback for errors.
-             * @param {Object} options - Configuration for getting sources.
-             * @param {Array} options.types - Specify the desktop source types
-             * to get, with valid sources being "window" and "screen".
-             * @param {Object} options.thumbnailSize - Specify how big the
-             * preview images for the sources should be. The valid keys are
-             * height and width, e.g. { height: number, width: number}. By
-             * default electron will return images with height and width of
-             * 150px.
-             */
-            obtainDesktopStreams(callback, errorCallback, options = {}) {
-                desktopCapturer.getSources(options,
-                    (error, sources) => {
-                        if (error) {
-                            errorCallback(error);
-                            return;
-                        }
-
-                        callback(sources);
-                    });
-            },
-        };
+    async _ipcCall(name, ...args) {
+        const ipcCallId = ++this._nextIpcCallId;
+        return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+            this._pendingIpcCalls[ipcCallId] = {resolve, reject};
+            window.ipcRenderer.send('ipcCall', {id: ipcCallId, name, args});
+            // Maybe add a timeout to these? Probably not necessary.
+        });
+    }
+
+    _onIpcReply(ev, payload) {
+        if (payload.id === undefined) {
+            console.warn("Ignoring IPC reply with no ID");
+            return;
+        }
+
+        if (this._pendingIpcCalls[payload.id] === undefined) {
+            console.warn("Unknown IPC payload ID: " + payload.id);
+            return;
+        }
+
+        const callbacks = this._pendingIpcCalls[payload.id];
+        delete this._pendingIpcCalls[payload.id];
+        if (payload.error) {
+            callbacks.reject(payload.error);
+        } else {
+            callbacks.resolve(payload.reply);
+        }
     }
-    /* END of copied and slightly-modified code */
 }
diff --git a/src/vector/platform/VectorBasePlatform.js b/src/vector/platform/VectorBasePlatform.js
index 16b9d17801..7523462cfc 100644
--- a/src/vector/platform/VectorBasePlatform.js
+++ b/src/vector/platform/VectorBasePlatform.js
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 /*
 Copyright 2016 Aviral Dasgupta
 Copyright 2016 OpenMarket Ltd
+Copyright 2018 New Vector Ltd
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -45,7 +46,6 @@ export default class VectorBasePlatform extends BasePlatform {
         this.favicon = new Favico({animation: 'none'});
         this.showUpdateCheck = false;
         this._updateFavicon();
-        this.updatable = true;
 
         this.startUpdateCheck = this.startUpdateCheck.bind(this);
         this.stopUpdateCheck = this.stopUpdateCheck.bind(this);
@@ -88,6 +88,19 @@ export default class VectorBasePlatform extends BasePlatform {
         this._updateFavicon();
     }
 
+    supportsAutoLaunch() {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    // XXX: Surely this should be a setting like any other?
+    async getAutoLaunchEnabled() {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    async setAutoLaunchEnabled(enabled) {
+        throw new Error("Unimplemented");
+    }
+
     /**
      * Begin update polling, if applicable
      */
@@ -97,8 +110,8 @@ export default class VectorBasePlatform extends BasePlatform {
     /**
      * Whether we can call checkForUpdate on this platform build
      */
-    canSelfUpdate(): boolean {
-        return this.updatable;
+    async canSelfUpdate(): boolean {
+        return false;
     }
 
     startUpdateCheck() {
diff --git a/src/vector/platform/WebPlatform.js b/src/vector/platform/WebPlatform.js
index 2955b84a3b..d850dd6ddd 100644
--- a/src/vector/platform/WebPlatform.js
+++ b/src/vector/platform/WebPlatform.js
@@ -142,6 +142,10 @@ export default class WebPlatform extends VectorBasePlatform {
         setInterval(this.pollForUpdate.bind(this), POKE_RATE_MS);
     }
 
+    async canSelfUpdate(): boolean {
+        return true;
+    }
+
     pollForUpdate() {
         return this._getVersion().then((ver) => {
             if (this.runningVersion === null) {
diff --git a/webpack.config.js b/webpack.config.js
index f335aa3c1b..82972adf44 100644
--- a/webpack.config.js
+++ b/webpack.config.js
@@ -108,11 +108,6 @@ module.exports = {
             "matrix-js-sdk": path.resolve('./node_modules/matrix-js-sdk'),
         },
     },
-    externals: {
-        // Don't try to bundle electron: leave it as a commonjs dependency
-        // (the 'commonjs' here means it will output a 'require')
-        "electron": "commonjs electron",
-    },
     plugins: [
         new webpack.DefinePlugin({
             'process.env': {