This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:
---
Title : Qt 5.15 LTS on Windows without a Qt Account
Author : Remy van Elst
Date : 19-05-2024
URL : https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Qt_5.15_LTS_on_Windows_without_a_Qt_Account.html
Format : Markdown/HTML
---
I recently had to setup a Windows development environment with Qt 5.15. Qt 5.15 is still developed by the Qt company, but only released in binary form for paying customers. The [source code is released after 1 year](/s/blog/Qt_5.15_LTS_Docker_Image_for_Android_with_OpenSSL.html#toc_0). Via the Online Installer you can only install 5.15.2 and you must login with a Qt account. This guide shows you how to install the most recent Qt 5.15 (as of writing it's 5.15.13) and Qt Creator, **without** a Qt account. We're using `vcpkg` to compile Qt and a specific offline-enabled installer for Qt Creator.
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Usually I use a Linux environment where Qt is just an `apt-get install` or
`pacman -Sy` away. If I use Windows it's for Visual Studio to work on `C#`
projects or other DotNet stuff. A free version of Visual Studio(Community) is
available, no account required.
I have voiced my opinions on this license change many times before, no need to
keep beating a dead horse. For my [open source program]
(https://leafnode.nl) I still use Qt 5.15 due to Windows 7 support and when
starting that project, Qt 6 was incomplete. Feature parity with Qt 5.15 was
only reached around Qt 6.6, late-2023, almost 4 years after the initial
release of Qt 6. A lot of modules and features were removed with the release
of Qt 6 and compatibility with older operating systems was dropped.
### Commercial Qt is easy
Qt on Windows is quite horrible if you're not paying. When you, or probably
your company, is paying for a commercial license, the Qt Company provides
binaries of Qt 5.15. Here's a screenshot of the online installer with my
commercial Qt license. No need to filter on archive or LTS, 5.15.16 is in the
list right away:
Here is the same installer with a free Qt account. You need to click Archive
before Qt 5.15.2 is listed and there is a big red scary warning:
### vcpkg is even easier
Due to the [legal obligations]
(/s/blog/Qt_5.15_LTS_Docker_Image_for_Android_with_OpenSSL.html#toc_0) Qt has
to release the source code for 5.15 within a year after the commercial
release. By using the `vcpkg` package manager, Qt 5.15.13 is just one command
away, and a bit of time. No manual compilation effort however, no need to
download Perl, Ruby or GCC. `vcpkg` uses Visual Studio and MSVC to compile Qt
and make it available. No need for an account and you get the latest security
fixes.
For Qt Creator there is no need to compile or use `vcpkg`.
### Qt Creator 13 installation without a Qt Account
Qt publishes an installer of just Qt Creator on [their download site]
(http://web.archive.org/web/20240519185250/https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qtcreator/13.0/13.0.1/qt-creator-opensource-windows-x86_64-13.0.1.exe.mirrorlist).
Here is a [magnet torrent link]
(magnet:?xt=urn:btih:18b5070c247ffe143da443b03c49a886845e556a&xt=urn:md5:7d88b4db03186afbd787a67258f8f14a&xl=345982992&dn=qt-creator-opensource-windows-x86_64-13.0.1.exe&as=https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qtcreator/13.0/13.0.1/qt-creator-opensource-windows-x86_64-13.0.1.exe&tr=http://bt.qt-project.org:6969/announce)
they provide. Download the installer for Windows and when the download is
done, **disconnect all networks**. Set Windows into airplane mode and/or
physically disconnect your network cable.
Download and start the installer, you'll be greeted by this screen:
As you can see, no login possible, but there is a `Next` button. Continue with
the installation as normal.
Here's a screenshot of this specific installed Qt Creator running:
Now on to the framework itself.
### Installing Qt 5.15 with vcpkg
[vcpkg]
(https://web.archive.org/web/20240519191718/https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/get_started/overview)
is an open-source C/C++ package manager maintained by Microsoft. It uses
`ports`, which are versioned build recipes to produce packages.
The most common use case is to use `vcpkg` in your own software repository
combined with `CMake` to manage libraries and dependencies. A new developer
only has to install `vcpkg` and then `CMake` can manage and/or install all
project dependencies without manual hassle. The CI/CD system also uses this,
saving time and effort.
However, we are using `vcpkg` to compile and easily install Qt 5.15. `vcpkg`
will handle all dependencies for us, resulting in a full Qt installation
usable with Qt Creator in just a few commands.
**Make sure you have Visual Studio and MSVC installed!**.
Use the installer for the community version or try this PowerShell command to
[install Visual Studio]
(https://web.archive.org/web/20240519193118/https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/use-command-line-parameters-to-install-visual-studio?view=vs-2022)
and [install MSVC]
(https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/workload-component-id-vs-community?view=vs-2022)
:
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vs_community.exe" -OutFile
"vs_installer.exe";
Start-Process -Wait -FilePath ".\vs_installer.exe" -ArgumentList '--add
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop --includeRecommended --passive
--norestart'
Also make sure [git for windows](https://gitforwindows.org/) is installed.
#### Installing vcpkg
Start with [setting up]
(https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/get_started/get-started?pivots=shell-cmd)
`vcpkg`. I'm using the folder `C:\bin` as the root folder, if you use another
folder, change that for your setup in the rest of this article. For the
`vcpkg` setup I'm using a `CMD` window, but you can also use Powershell.
mkdir \bin
cd \bin\
Clone the [vcpkg](https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg) repository:
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git
Go into the folder and execute the bootstrap script:
cd vcpkg
bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
For this CMD session, update your `PATH`:
set VCPKG_ROOT="C:\bin\vcpkg"
set PATH=%VCPKG_ROOT%;%PATH%
For later convenience, integrate `vcpkg` with Visual Studio:
vcpkg integrate install
That's all there is for the `vcpkg` setup. Continue with installing Qt. Do not
close this CMD window.
#### Installing Qt 5.15 via vcpkg
Execute the following command to install the first part of Qt 5.15:
vcpkg install qt5-base
This will resolve and install all required build dependencies for Qt 5. The
command takes a while, on my system it was compiling for about an hour.
Execute the following command to install the rest of the Qt modules:
vcpkg install qt5
[3d,activeqt,charts,connectivity,core,datavis3d,declarative,doc,essentials,extras,gamepad,graphicaleffects,imageformats,location,mqtt,multimedia,networkauth,purchasing,quickcontrols,quickcontrols2,remoteobjects,script,scxml,sensors,serialbus,serialport,speech,svg,tools,translations,virtualkeyboard,webchannel,websockets,webview,xmlpatterns]
You can remove components you do not want, I've not included `webengine`
because that failed to compile. This takes another hour or so to compile.
I've split up the installation to make is easier to select different modules.
Your project might not need the Qt statemachine framework or Remote QObjects.
If I only provided `qt5[all]`, installing would take a lot longer and you
might not need all modules.
When all compile commands are finished there is one more thing you must do.
Add the following to your `%PATH%` env variable (via `sysdm.cpl` for example)
and reboot:
- `C:\bin\vcpkg`
- `C:\bin\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\debug\bin\`
- `C:\bin\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\bin\`
If you do not add the above to your `PATH`, the rest of the guide will not
work. Make sure to do it!
### Set up the vcpkg Qt 5.15 kit in Qt Creator
Start Qt Creator and open your project. Click the `Manage Kits` button or open
the Preferences via the menu `Edit` -> `Preferences`. Qt Creator should have
detected `MSVC` and Visual Studio automatically:
Copy the Desktop kit, rename one to include `DBG` and one to include `REL`.
You'll need one kit for Debug builds and one kit for Release builds. You'll
get missing DLL errors otherwise or if you try to compile a release build
with the debug kit, or the other way around. I've not looked into that more
since figuring the other parts out took longer than I wanted already.
The only thing missing is the `Qt version`.
Open the `Qt Versions` tab and click `Add`.
Navigate to `qmake.exe`.
I have two versions, one for `Debug` builds and one for `Release` builds:
- Release: `C:\bin\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\tools\qt5\bin\qmake.exe`
- Debug: `C:\bin\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\tools\qt5\debug\bin\qmake.exe`
After adding the `Qt Versions` navigate back to the `Kits` tab and select the
correct Qt version for the correct Kit. (Match Debug to the debug kit and
Release to the release kit).
You should now be able to compile your Qt project with this build of Qt.
### Missing DLL errors
I tried to compile my own software and during compilation `rcc.exe` complained
about a missing `DLL` file. The screenshot is from `LeafNodeMonitoring.exe`
because I recreated the faulty scenario for a screenshot, however the initial
error came from `rcc.exe`:
Notice the `d1` part in the DLL filename? Not sure why, but this is why I have
defined two Qt versions and two kits, one for debug builds and one for
release builds. But this specific DLL kept failing in the debug builds, no
matter how my `%PATH%` was set up or ordered. Release build had no issues,
that worked the first time right away.
Dependency walker was of no use this time:
I ended up copying `zlibd1.dll` from the
`C:\bin\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\debug\bin\` folder to the folder where
`rcc.exe` was located
(`C:\bin\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\tools\qt5\debug\bin\`).
### Conclusion
Compared to manually compiling Qt 5.15, which required setting up and
littering your system with dependencies, using `vcpkg` is a breeze. It's
literally one command to install Qt, no account needed and it is
reproducible. My CI system now also builds Windows binaries because the
installation of Qt is automated without requiring an account.
Here is a screenshot of [my software](https://leafnode.nl) after it was
compiled via this build of Qt. Look at the second `qt.qml.diskcache` log
line, it includes the `vcpkg` path so I know for sure it's using this
specific Qt version:
---
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