electron-builder MSI installer asar file too large

I have an Angular app for which I need to create an MSI installer. I have successfully created an electron app (npm run electron), but when I try to create the installer I get this error:

error LGHT0263 : 'C:...\release\win-unpacked\resources\app.asar' is too large, file size must be less than 2147483648.
​

I ran the commands in this order:

1. npm run electron --> to run the electron app itself to see if it works (I closed the app before doing the next steps)
2. npm run tsc
3. npm run step2
4. npm run electron:build

I assume I am including too many files in electron-builder.json, but I am not sure what I can remove and what is required for the app to run since this is my first time using electron and electron-builder.

When I set "asar": false in electron-builder.json, the MSI installer is created, but I get the warning asar usage is disabled — this is strongly not recommended, it takes forever (i.e. 30-ish minutes) to build and the MSI packet is almost 1.5 GB in size.

Does anybody know how I can reduce the asar size?

This is my project structure:

|- dist
|- electron
|- main.ts
|- package.json
|- node_modules
|- release
|- src
|- all angular source code
|- angular.json
|- electron-builder.json
|- package.json
|- tsconfig.json
|- tsconfig.serve.json


Scripts in package.json:

"scripts": {
"ng": "ng",
"start": "ng serve",
"build": "ng build",
"electron": "ng build --configuration electron && electron .",
"tsc": "tsc -p tsconfig.serve.json",
"step2": "ng build --base-href ./ --configuration electron",
"electron:build": "electron-builder build --publish=never"
}


electron-builder.json:

{"asar": true,
"directories": {
"output": "release/"
},
"files": [
{
"from": "dist",
"filter": ["**/*"]
},
{
"from": "electron",
"filter": ["**/*"]
},
{
"from": "src",
"filter": ["**/*"]
},
"!**/*.ts",
"!*.map",
"!package.json",
"!package-lock.json",
"!node_modules/**",
"!.angular/**",
"!.vscode/**",
"!cypress/**",
"!release/**"
],
"win": {
"icon": "offline-test.ico",
"target": [
"msi"
]
}
}


tsconfig.serve.json:

{
"compilerOptions": {
"sourceMap": true,
"declaration": false,
"moduleResolution": "node",
"emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
"experimentalDecorators": true,
"module": "commonjs",
"target": "es2015",
"types": [
"node"
],
"lib": [
"es2017",
"es2016",
"es2015",
"dom"
]
},
"files": [
"electron/main.ts"
],
"exclude": [
"node_modules",
"**/*.spec.ts"
]
}


I looked at this question, but I think I am excluding the directory where the MSI file is, so I'm not sure what else I can exclude.

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