Generally speaking, a handle is an opaque reference to an os object; the typedef here makes that clear. Linux uses the same general concept as well, though file objects are typically referenced through file descriptors rather than windows style handles.

might not be a great idea for them to be installing non-package-managed stuff systemwide

./configure
make -j$(nproc)
./build/bin/app

./configure
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install