Embedding Application Manifest and Version Information using QtCreator

Modern applications for Microsoft Windows should include an embedded manifest and version information. The version information is used for example by the UAC dialog and it is displayed in Explorer's file properties. The manifest is even more important because without it Vista and Windows 7 will virtualize your application's access to the registry and file system. Unfortunately it is not obvious how to embed such information using QtCreator, so we publish this post in hope it will save you time.

Application Manifest

First, we have to prepare an application manifest file. This one below is for application that does not require administrator rights:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <assemblyIdentity version="2.0.2.0" processorArchitecture="X86" type="win32"/>
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges>
        <requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false"/>
      </requestedPrivileges>
    </security>
  </trustInfo>
</assembly>

Second, we need the MT.exe tool from the Microsoft Windows SDK to embed this XML in our executable. To do it use the following command:

mt.exe –manifest MyApp.exe.manifest -outputresource:MyApp.exe;1

Our company has received funding from the European Union

We are very happy to announce that our company has received funding from the European Union. The money come from the Human Capital National Cohesion Strategy within the European Social Fund. We hope to put the funds to good use that will allow Strix Code to grow and introduce a few more interesting products.