Windows C++ devs:
My main project is a Python + Qt GUI application. Distributing that as-is on Linux is easy. On Windows, a little trickier.
What I do now is distribute it with Python embeddable and pure Python code. That's fine, but it makes the launching a little tricky.
I'm currently trying to create a trivial C++ exec that just launches the correct files via CreateProcess().
Does this sound like a good idea? Code linked below.
https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/tree/windows_launcher/launcher/windows
@veronica do you know of pyinstaller? That creates a directory with your python env and a single executable to run or alternatively even a single executable that unpacks the runtime in a temporary directory and then runs it (takes a bit longer to start). With pyinstaller and lets say a simple nsis installer script you could distribute a standard windows installer and the users would not even know it’s python in the background.
@veronica one caveat: do not use a new release of pyinstaller until it is released at least for two weeks as the stupid windows defender likes to find a “virus” in it as it apparently does some things that the heuristics in the scanner don’t like. Usually fixes itself when more people use the new release as it gets reported as a false positive and then excluded by the scanner with the next definition update.
@veronica oh by the way: nice project, bookmarked to try in the future as it seems to be exactly what i was searching 
@dunkelstern Thanks for the reply. I realise threads don't always propagate to other servers, but I already mentioned Pyinstaller in the third post: https://mastodon.online/@veronica/113846640401519494
But yeah, it's not really usable.
@veronica oh sorry i really didn’t see that reply. If you need beta testers for something let me know
@veronica@mastodon.online@dunkelstern I finished an implementation of the launcher exe, and made an alpha release purely for testing, if you're insterested. I tested it on a pretty much clean Windows 11 VM without even the VC++ redist dlls, and it worked at my end.
The installer and launcher are signed, so shouldn't raise any warnings.
@veronica cool will test tomorrow