Windows Guide

QtPass builds on Windows using MSVC, qmake and nmake.

MinGW is not supported with nmake.

Install QtPass

Using Chocolatey (recommended)

Run in Administrator PowerShell:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
 
choco install vcredist140 -y
choco install qtpass -y

Or download from releases

Download the latest .exe installer from GitHub Releases

Install GPG

QtPass requires GPG for encryption. Install Gpg4win.

Key generation can take a long time (especially RSA 4096-bit keys) - this is normal.

Building from Source

Step 1: Install dependencies

Run in Administrator PowerShell:

choco install -y git python visualstudio2022buildtools visualstudio2022-workload-vctools

Step 2: Install Qt

Install an MSVC build of Qt (not MinGW).

Do not use mingw_64. It will not work with nmake.

Run in normal PowerShell:

py -m pip install --user -U aqtinstall
py -m aqt install-qt -O C:\Qt windows desktop 6.8.0 win64_msvc2022_64

Step 3: Open a shell with MSVC environment

Open a Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022 or run:

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat" -arch=amd64 -host_arch=amd64

Then set:

set PATH=C:\Qt\6.8.0\msvc2022_64\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\bin;%PATH%
set QMAKESPEC=
set QTDIR=

Step 4: Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/IJHack/QtPass.git
cd QtPass

If you previously built with another Qt version or toolchain:

del .qmake.stash

Then build:

qmake -spec win32-msvc
nmake
nmake check TESTARGS="--platform offscreen"

Notes

• qmake must come from msvc2022_64, not mingw_64
• nmake requires the MSVC environment (VsDevCmd.bat)
• tests expect bash (provided by Git for Windows)

First Run

1. Launch QtPass
2. Click "Autodetect" to find GPG and Git
3. Set your password store location (default: APPDATA%\password-store)
4. Or select an existing pass store folder

Configure GPG Key

1. Go to Config → User to select your GPG key
2. If using for the first time, generate a key with Config → Generate GPG key

Initialize Password Store (if new)

1. Click File → Initialize
2. Select your GPG key(s) for encryption
3. Your .gpg-id file will be created

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
"GnuPG not found"	Install Gpg4win, restart QtPass, or set path manually in Config
"Signature does not exist"	Ensure your GPG key is in the .gpg-id file via Config → Users
Git not working	Use Git Credential Manager for HTTPS authentication
App doesn't start	Install vcredist140 (Visual C++ Redistributable)
QMAKE_MSC_VER isn't set	delete .qmake.stash and rerun qmake
nmake fails with Unix commands (test, mkdir -p)	Wrong Qt variant installed (MinGW instead of MSVC) - reinstall using MSVC Qt build
Should find bash in PATH	ensure C:\Program Files\Git\bin is on PATH
cl not found	MSVC environment not loaded - run VsDevCmd.bat

Build fails with weird errors

Clean and reconfigure:

del .qmake.stash
nmake distclean
qmake