That is really great. I do not have access to the windows system right now, could you check for me if designer.exe.manifest is the same as QtGui4.dll.manifest? Logically speaking, we should use that one.
Also, have your tried to embed the manifest file to lyx.exe? Which commands did you use? Also, if you move the lyx.exe or qtgui4.dll, or msvcrt.dll to another place, will lyx.exe still start? Thank you very much for figuring this out. I have kind of lost my patience on this issue. Cheers, Bo
