Do Qt apps look and feel native under Windows?

Question

I’m about to port one of my Mac applications to Windows. The Mac app uses Apple’s native Cocoa/Appkit frameworks for the UI. The UI is Obj-C code, and the core app functionality is portable C++ code.

Now I’m looking for a way to port the app to Windows and to make it look and feel native to Windows users. My choices are Microsoft’s MFC and the Qt framework. Though I’m sure MFC apps have the native look and feel, what I remember from MFC coding the framework itself is horrible. I took a look into Qt and like it from the developer’s perspective.

But as I am not a Windows user I have no idea whether Qt apps have a native Windows look and feel.

Thus my question: Can I make (without a lot of work) a Qt app behave and look like it was written with the native Windows frameworks?

Answer 1

You can easily change the style of a Qt application. On Windows and Mac the default style is actually using the native functions for drawing windows, controls and the like.

Additionally Qt does take many measures so that even the smallest aspects of an application (things you wouldn't even think of) emulate the native behaviour of a specific platform. So your Qt application can also replace your current Mac application when ported.

I extremely advise you not to use MFC, you will regret it (especially if you never worked with the native Win32 API). It's the complete opposite of Qt regarding flexibility and ease of use.

Answer 2

As you can read on doc.qt.io:

Qt Widgets are traditional user interface elements that are typically found in desktop environments. The widgets integrate well to the underlying platform providing native look'n'feel on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

Take a look at Qt Widget Gallery:

Qt's support for widget styles and themes enables your application to fit in with the native desktop enviroment.

You might be interested in a presentation called How to Make Your Qt Application Look Native:

Qt uses native style APIs on each supported platform, however there are some additional tricks you can use to make sure your Qt-based application looks, feels and behaves better. This presentation will run through examples, tips and ticks to help you make your applications look great on all platforms.