Support Windows 7 and 8.1 on version 4.6.7 with Qt5 build and please publish the x64 binaries

[NewEraCracker]

Suggestion

Provide a build of qBitTorrent version 4.6.7 that supports Windows 7 and 8.1 using Qt5, without the need to use a 3rd party enhanced version.

Use case

Many users are still using legacy systems like Windows 7 and 8.1, and are unable to upgrade to newer versions of Windows due to hardware or software limitations.

Currently, the official qBitTorrent version 4.6.7 requires at least Windows 10 (1809) / Windows Server 2019, making it impossible for these users to use the latest version of qBitTorrent.

By providing a Qt5 build that supports Windows 7 and 8.1, these users can continue to use qBitTorrent without having to resort to 3rd party enhanced versions that may pose security risks.

Extra info/examples/attachments

The qBitTorrent Enhanced Edition 4.6.7, which is not an authorized version of qBitTorrent at many trackers, includes the security update mentioned in the Bleeping Computer article. However, this version is not recommended due to security concerns.

By providing an official build that supports Windows 7 and 8.1, qBitTorrent can ensure that users on these platforms can continue to use the software safely and securely.

[xavier2k6]

Unlikely to happen.....

[NewEraCracker]

For the moment I will stick with v4.4.5 on Windows 7 and v4.5.5 on Windows 8.1.

I have also opened a discussion on the fork: c0re100#633 but they are not helpful. 😞

Could you point me to a tutorial on how to build from source, and the requirements?

Thank you.

[HanabishiRecca]

Could you point me to a tutorial on how to build from source, and the requirements?

Everything is in the wiki. See

• MSVC 2019 (CMake, static linkage)
• MSVC 2019 (qmake, static linkage)

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Many users are still using legacy systems like Windows 7 and 8.1, and are unable to upgrade to newer versions of Windows due to hardware or software limitations.

At this point just use Linux, IMO.

[xavier2k6]

Related/Duplicate of #18449, #20139.

[gekowa]

qbittorrent_4.6.7_qt5_win7_amd64.zip
Just built one, hope it useful. Install latest MSVC runtime if needed.

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Use at your own risk! (Some dependencies are older than official 4.5.x releases & no qBittorrent.pdb file present)

NO OFFICIAL SUPPORT WILL BE PROVIDED by qBittorrent Team

[NewEraCracker]

qbittorrent_4.6.7_qt5_win7_amd64.zip Just built one, hope it useful. Install latest MSVC runtime if needed.

Use at your own risk! (Some dependencies are older than official 4.5.x releases & no qBittorrent.pdb file present)

I am highly suspicious of that upload.

VT says it is clean: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/6b31ad413d703472203777c8d4480c5d77f49801b166f1ceb06dd57b8f6c59ac

But when I opened it in a virtual machine my antivirus blocked a connection to 91.132.146.181 port 63681 qualifying it as having malicious intent.

[HanabishiRecca]

But when I opened it in a virtual machine my antivirus blocked a connection to 91.132.146.181 port 63681 qualifying it as having malicious intent.

The whole point of BitTorrent is to connect to random people/addreses in the internet. So it does not indicate anything.
But yeah, be cautious about running unofficial binaries. I think it's not that hard to fork & tweak a transparent GitHub CI to build it for you. Or build it yourself.

[xavier2k6]

moved to discussions

[NewEraCracker]

I am thinking MSYS2 would be a better option:
https://github.com/minnyres/qbittorrent-windows-arm64/blob/main/build.sh

Somebody did this for ARM64, so it might be possible for AMD64.

Idea - Using (from v4.5.5):

• Qt: 5.15.10
• Libtorrent: 1.2.19.0
• Boost: 1.83.0
• OpenSSL: 1.1.1v
• zlib: 1.2.13

I might have a look at it next week.

Newer dependency versions:

• Boost 1.86.0 https://www.boost.org/users/history/version_1_86_0.html
• OpenSSL 1.1.1w https://openssl-library.org/news/openssl-1.1.1-notes/index.html
• zlib: 1.3.1 https://github.com/madler/zlib/releases/tag/v1.3.1

Any recommendations?

[HanabishiRecca]

I've ported Qt5 CI build on top of the last commit in v4_6_x branch (4.6.7 effectively). There are both libtorrent 1.2 and 2.0 builds from the latest respective commits.

Here is the build artifacts. I wouldn't reupload them anywhere for maximum build transparency. So download and store them for yourself.

Here is ci_windows.yaml (remove the .txt extension) to be applied on top of v4_6_x branch, if you want to build it youself.

[HanabishiRecca]

Hmm, I though it linked them statically. Ok, wait I'll make some changes.

[NewEraCracker]

Also, if possible, copy the compiled translation files into the zip. I do not know if the official ones from Qt6 are compatible (likely not).

This will be very useful to share later with the community knowing there are 0 virus on the package and it has the security update for the MiTM bug mentioned on the BleepingComputer article posted 4 weeks ago.

Your work is highly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

PS: Has something changed at GitHub side? Last time I tried something like this I had ran out of CI minutes.

[HanabishiRecca]

Updated the links, try now.

I do not know if the official ones from Qt6 are compatible (likely not).

It's not about Qt version, but 5.0 release having a lot of changes. So I guess many translated strings simply would not match.

This will be very useful to share later with the community knowing there are 0 virus on the package

Reuploading binaries kinda defies the point here. And GitHub CI stores build artifacts for a limited time, so the download link will expire.
It is fairly easy to reuse the workflow file though.

PS: Has something changed at GitHub side? Last time I tried something like this I had ran out of CI minutes.

I don't remember having any restrictions on that. This official repo runs free CI on every commit and pull request just fine.
https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/actions

[NewEraCracker]

Success! It runs, has all the languages. - Windows 7 x64

Thanks a lot! I forked your repository for reference: https://github.com/NewEraCracker/qBittorrent/tree/v4_6_x_qt5

Lovely. Really! 😄

[NewEraCracker]

Here's another screenshot from the RC_2_0 version running on Windows 8.1 x64.

Very good. 😃

[xavier2k6]

@HanabishiRecca Installing Qt 5.15.x series is limited to Qt 5.15.2 via jurplel/install-qt-action due to no later binaries being available via Qt repo, however - vcpkg does have Qt 5.15.16 available & can be installed through that in CI (see v4_3_x branch for guidance)

[HanabishiRecca]

Hmm, ok, I will look into that. Could as well allow to link everything statically.

[HanabishiRecca]

Well, looks like it requires building entire Qt framework and its dependencies from source. Which takes forever in GitHub CI.
And honestly I have no desire to spend more time messing with Windows/vcpkg stuff.

[NewEraCracker]

It's fine. I think we are good like it is. Newer Qt versions are commercial LTS and require license. On a side note, a project for work still uses Qt 5.7.1 and we never felt the need to upgrade.

[NewEraCracker]

I am starting to test it for real and will update if anything else comes up.

There may be possibilities to use a custom Qt6 version like: https://github.com/crystalidea/qt6windows7

I am highly thankful for the work both you provided. This is is a very good community sense. 😃