How to create manifest file for Qt standalone application
<p>I am building a Qt standalone application with static linking following <a href="https://wiki.qt.io/Build_Standalone_Qt_Application_for_Windows" rel="nofollow">this guide</a>. I followed each step except the last one, which consists of embedding a manifest to the executable, and the application runs fine on a number of machines; I found one, however, where the executable cannot be launched because MSVCP140.dll is missing from the computer. This is error is most probably caused by the fact that I did not include the manifest. Indeed, in the guide above it is clearly written:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>[...] you should execute mt.exe to embed a manifest inside the application to avoid error such as missing MSVCP90.dll when the application is started on other computers</p>
</blockquote>

<p>My two questions are:</p>

<ol>
<li>What is the function of the manifest file in this case? Why is it that on some machines the application runs without it while for others it is necessary? From what I know, Visual Studio is installed on none of the computers that were used for the test.</li>
<li>How do I generate such file for my Qt application? I followed the steps of the guide and no .manifest file is automatically generated. Hence, I am assuming that either I missed something when I built the static version of Qt or that I should use some external tool for doing it. For example, I saw that <a href="https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/acz3y3te(v=vs.110).aspx" rel="nofollow">Mage.exe</a> can be used to generate manifests, but I do not know if it's the right way to go in my case.</li>
</ol>