QtCS25 - State of Qt on Windows

Session Summary

The session had two parts. First, a description of changes since last year. Second, an open discussion about ideas for the future.

Session Owners

Wladimir Leuschner

Notes

Wladimir Leuschner

A. Since last summit

1. Windows on ARM

native WoA binary. No support for AMR64EC yet (technical issues)

2. Custom Titlebars

Put widgets in titlebar

Transparency

Qt:ExpandedClientAreaHint

Qt:NoTitleBarBackgroundHint

Safe margins

3. Patch for deployment to windows store in process

Two new windeployqt parameters

4. Windows App SDK and WebView2

a. Download WindowsAppSDK download form QtCreator

b. WebView2 as backend for QtWebView (more lightweight than WebEngine)

B. Now what? Future?

1. Pain point with QtQuick is much more glitchy than QtWidgets (e.g., resizing). Not a great impression.

2. AI Assistant inclusion?  

Mac does it with Apple Intelligence; Text oriented. Primarily text replacement and relatively easy to integrate.

Windows has some AI APIs; Could do similar to Mac with text?

3. What could widget focus be?

More widgets versus more quick

Ribbon as toolbar? Early discussion was about potential patent trouble.

4. Possible Copilot integration?

5. Possible native composition for glass effect.

6. More Native?

Hard to figure out what "native" means.

In a recent review, QPA was somewhat stale.

For example, popups don't use native; paint directly.

Ribbon frequently changes with each MS Office release.  Needs constant review; hard to follow.  Several styles; likely outdated in a couple of years. Can place elements in multiple areas.  Hard to match native when native itself is hard to define, mixed within Windows itself.  Perhaps more mimicking of native style, perhaps through explicit style types.

7. Could implement blur/glass effect.  Becoming more relevant; people expect.