diff --git a/adrilight/MainForm.cs b/adrilight/MainForm.cs
index 88f01ed..25309d3 100644
--- a/adrilight/MainForm.cs
+++ b/adrilight/MainForm.cs
@@ -14,13 +14,13 @@
 using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
 using NLog;
 using Semver;
+using System.Reflection;
+using System.IO;
 
 namespace adrilight {
 
     public partial class MainForm : Form
     {
-        private const string CURRENT_VERSION = "0.1.4";
-
         private readonly ILogger _log = LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger();
 
         private NotifyIcon _mNotifyIcon;
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@ public partial class MainForm : Form
         public MainForm() {
             _log.Debug("Creating Mainform");
             InitializeComponent();
+            Text += " " + Program.VersionNumber;
+
             InitTrayIcon();
 
             Application.ApplicationExit += OnApplicationExit;
@@ -46,23 +48,21 @@ private void StartVersionCheck()
         {
             try
             {
-                var currentVersion = SemVersion.Parse(CURRENT_VERSION);
-
                 dynamic latestRelease = TryGetLatestReleaseData().Result;
                 if (latestRelease == null) return;
 
                 string tagName = latestRelease.tag_name;
-                var latestVersionNumber = SemVersion.Parse(tagName.TrimStart('v','V'));
+                var latestVersionNumber = SemVersion.Parse(tagName.TrimStart('v', 'V'));
 
-                if (latestVersionNumber > currentVersion)
+                if (latestVersionNumber > Program.VersionNumber)
                 {
-                    Invoke((MethodInvoker) delegate
+                    Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate
                     {
                         var url = latestRelease.html_url as string;
-                       var shouldOpenUrl = MessageBox.Show($"New version of adrilight is available! The new version is {latestVersionNumber} (you are running {currentVersion}). Press OK to open the download page." 
-                            , "New Adrilight Version!", MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel) == DialogResult.OK;
+                        var shouldOpenUrl = MessageBox.Show($"New version of adrilight is available! The new version is {latestVersionNumber} (you are running {Program.VersionNumber}). Press OK to open the download page."
+                             , "New Adrilight Version!", MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel) == DialogResult.OK;
 
-                        if (url!=null && shouldOpenUrl)
+                        if (url != null && shouldOpenUrl)
                         {
                             Process.Start(url);
                         }
diff --git a/adrilight/Program.cs b/adrilight/Program.cs
index d9062b7..005bfc8 100644
--- a/adrilight/Program.cs
+++ b/adrilight/Program.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 using NLog;
 using System;
+using System.IO;
+using System.Reflection;
 using System.Text;
 using System.Threading;
 using System.Windows.Forms;
@@ -16,7 +18,7 @@ static class Program {
         [STAThread]
         static void Main()
         {
-            _log.Debug("Main() started.");
+            _log.Debug($"adrilight {VersionNumber}: Main() started.");
 
             Settings.Refresh();
 
@@ -32,7 +34,7 @@ static void Main()
 
         private static void ApplicationOnThreadException(object sender, Exception ex)
         {
-            _log.Fatal(ex, $"ApplicationOnThreadException from sender={sender}");
+            _log.Fatal(ex, $"ApplicationOnThreadException from sender={sender}, adrilight version={VersionNumber}");
 
             var sb = new StringBuilder();
             sb.AppendLine($"Sender: {sender}");
@@ -53,5 +55,18 @@ private static void ApplicationOnThreadException(object sender, Exception ex)
             MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString(), "unhandled exception :-(");
             Application.Exit();
         }
+
+        public static string VersionNumber { get; } = GetVersionNumber();
+
+        private static string GetVersionNumber()
+        {
+            var assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
+            string currentVersion;
+            using (var versionStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("adrilight.version.txt"))
+            {
+                currentVersion = new StreamReader(versionStream).ReadToEnd().Trim();
+            }
+            return currentVersion;
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/adrilight/adrilight.csproj b/adrilight/adrilight.csproj
index a5515d9..567e95d 100644
--- a/adrilight/adrilight.csproj
+++ b/adrilight/adrilight.csproj
@@ -135,6 +135,9 @@
     <EmbeddedResource Include="Overlay.resx">
       <DependentUpon>Overlay.cs</DependentUpon>
     </EmbeddedResource>
+    <EmbeddedResource Include="..\version.txt">
+      <Link>version.txt</Link>
+    </EmbeddedResource>
     <Content Include="NLog.config">
       <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
     </Content>
diff --git a/create_release.bat b/create_release.bat
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd45a66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/create_release.bat
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+powershell -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -File create_release.ps1 
+
+pause
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/create_release.ps1 b/create_release.ps1
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a4a87c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/create_release.ps1
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+$version = gc .\version.txt
+
+del ".\Release\adrilight_$version.zip" -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
+rm ".\Release\adrilight_$version" -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
+md ".\Release\adrilight_$version\PC" -Force
+
+#find msbuild
+$_decSep = [System.Threading.Thread]::CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture.NumberFormat.CurrencyDecimalSeparator;
+$msbuild = $(Get-ChildItem -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\" | 
+    Where { $_.Name -match '\\\d+.\d+$' } | 
+    Sort-Object -property  @{Expression={[System.Convert]::ToDecimal($_.Name.Substring($_.Name.LastIndexOf("\") + 1).Replace(".",$_decSep).Replace(",",$_decSep))}} -Descending |
+    Select-Object -First 1).GetValue("MSBuildToolsPath") + "msbuild.exe"
+    
+if((Test-Path -Path $msbuild) -eq $false) {Write-Error "failed to find msbuild file"; exit}
+
+& $msbuild /m .\adrilight.sln /t:Clean /p:Configuration=Release
+& $msbuild /m .\adrilight.sln /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release
+
+dir Arduino -Recurse | Copy -Destination ".\Release\adrilight_$version\Arduino\"
+dir .\adrilight\bin\Release -Exclude "*.pdb","*vshost*","logs" | Copy -Destination ".\Release\adrilight_$version\PC\"
+
+Compress-Archive -Path ".\Release\adrilight_$version\*" -DestinationPath ".\Release\adrilight_$version.zip" -Force -CompressionLevel Optimal
+
+write-host
+Write-Host "adrilight_$version.zip created!" -ForegroundColor Green
+Write-Host "full path:" -ForegroundColor Gray
+Write-Host (dir ".\Release\adrilight_$version.zip").FullName -ForegroundColor Yellow
diff --git a/version.txt b/version.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..446ba66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/version.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.1.4
\ No newline at end of file