wxWidgets samples

wxWidgets sample projects using CMake for Microsoft Windows platform.

Install WxWidgets on Windows

Download wxWidgets source.
- Unzip, and copy the entire unzipped folder to C:/DevLibs/ or whatever parent folder appropriate. The full path to wxWidgets source should be like C:/DevLibs/wxWidgets-3.2.2.1 in the case that the downloaded version is 3.2.2.1 and the unzipped folder name is wxWidgets-3.2.2.1.
- Create a Windows System Environmental Variable WXWIDGETS_ROOT, and set its value to wxWidgets source path, for example, C:/DevLibs/wxWidgets-3.2.2.1.
Download Windows 64-bit (x86-64) Development Files, via "Download Windows Binaries -> Visual Studio 2015/2017/2019/2022 -> 64-Bit (x86_64) -> Development Files"
- Unzip and copy the subdirectory vc14x_x64_dll to %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%/lib/. This gives the library path as %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%/lib/vc14x_x64_dll. Add this path to Windows System Environmental Variable Path.
- This library path is intended for development, including dlls for both debug and release builds, as well as static libs.
Download Release Dlls, via "Download Windows Binaries -> Visual Studio 2015/2017/2019/2022 -> 64-Bit (x86_64) -> Release DLLs"
- Unzip and copy the subdirectory vc14x_x64_dll to %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%/distrib/. This gives the library path as %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%\distrib\vc14x_x64_dll. Add this path to Windows System Environmental Variable Path too.
- This library path is intended for distribution, including dlls for release build only.

Configure CMakeLists

The CMakeLists for each project should be like the following template. Remember to add WIN32 to add_executable, and to set wxWidgets_ROOT_DIR.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 23)

project(hello)

if(COMMAND cmake_policy)
    cmake_policy(SET CMP0003 NEW)
endif(COMMAND cmake_policy)

set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} WIN32 ${SOURCE_FILES})

# wxWidgets
set(wxWidgets_ROOT_DIR $ENV{WXWIDGETS_ROOT})
find_package(wxWidgets REQUIRED COMPONENTS core base)
include("${wxWidgets_USE_FILE}")
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} ${wxWidgets_LIBRARIES})

#DPI AWARE
add_definitions(-DwxUSE_DPI_AWARE_MANIFEST=2)

Build wxrc.exe

This is an optional step because wxrc.exe is already supplied in the development library path %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%/lib/vc14x_x64_dll. However, if you'd like to build your own, follow the following steps:

Make a copy of %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%/lib/vc14x_x64_dll, renamed it to %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%/lib/vc_x64_dll
Launch x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022
cd %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%\utils\wxrc
Run nmake /f makefile.vc BUILD=release SHARED=1 TARGET_CPU=X64. For more details, see this article
The newly built wxrc.exe should be inside %WXWIDGETS_ROOT%/utils/wxrc/vc_x64_mswudll/.

List of Sample Projects

Hello World. For details, read this article.

High DPI Support

See this reference High DPI Support in wxWidgets. On Windows DPI-awareness must be set through manifest file.

To enable DPI-awareness, add the following line to the master CMakeLists:

set(wxUSE_DPI_AWARE_MANIFEST 1)
message("wxUSE_DPI_AWARE_MANIFEST is set to ${wxUSE_DPI_AWARE_MANIFEST}")

Then for each executable, add the following lines to their respective CMakeLists: