I read ntessore's blog as well as other docs, but my Qt install on WinXP fails. Here are the final lines from the config command where it fails:

As ntessore suggests, I started the VS2008 command prompt, changed to the c:\qt directory and issued this command: configure -platform win32-msvc2008.

One interesting point is that if I use this command: configure -platform win32-msvc2008 -no-qmake, I get the same failure code.

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.
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riptprettypretty.obj qscriptsyntaxchecker.obj qscriptclass.obj qscriptclasspr
opertyiterator.obj qscriptstring.obj qscriptvalue.obj qscriptvalueimpl.obj q
scriptvalueiterator.obj qscriptvalueiteratorimpl.obj ole32.lib advapi32.lib
Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 9.00.21022.08
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

copy qmake.exe C:\Qt\bin\qmake.exe
True
True
True
True
[None, 1, 2L, 3.1400000000000001, 'xyzzy', (1, 2L), [3.1400000000000001, 'abc'],
{'abc': 'ABC'}, (), [], {}, <__main__.C instance at 0x00AA1850>]
[None, 1, 2L, 3.1400000000000001, 'xyzzy', (1, 2L), [3.1400000000000001, 'abc'],
{'abc': 'ABC'}, (), [], {}, <__main__.C instance at 0x00AA1850>]
False
[None, 1, 2L, 3.1400000000000001, 'xyzzy', (1, 2L), [3.1400000000000001, 'abc'],
{'abc': 'ABC'}, (), [], {}, <__main__.C instance at 0x00AA1850>]
[None, 1, 2L, 3.1400000000000001, 'xyzzy', (1, 2L), [3.1400000000000001, 'abc'],
{'abc': 'ABC'}, (), [], {}, <__main__.C instance at 0x00AA1D78>]
['None', '1', '2L', '3.1400000000000001', "'xyzzy'", '(1, 2L)', "[3.140000000000
0001, 'abc']", "{'abc': 'ABC'}", '()', '[]', '{}', '<__main__.C i...at 0x00AA185
0>', "{1: [None, 1, 2L, 3.1400000000000001, 'xyzzy', (1, 2L), ...], 'xyz': 2L}"]

['None', '1', '2L', '3.1400000000000001', "'xyzzy'", '(1, 2L)', "[3.140000000000
0001, 'abc']", "{'abc': 'ABC'}", '()', '[]', '{}']
['None', '1', '2L', '3.1400000000000001', "'xyzzy'", '(1, 2L)', "[3.140000000000
0001, 'abc']", "{'abc': 'ABC'}", '()', '[]', '{}', '<__main__.C i...at 0x00AA1D7
8>']
['None', '1', '2L', '3.1400000000000001', "'xyzzy'", '(1, 2L)', "[3.140000000000
0001, 'abc']", "{'abc': 'ABC'}", '()', '[]', '{}', '<__main__.C i...at 0x00AA185
0>', "{1: [None, 1, 2L, 3.1400000000000001, 'xyzzy', (1, 2L), ...], 'xyz': 2L}"]

['None', '1', '2L', '3.1400000000000001', "'xyzzy'", '(1, 2L)', "[3.140000000000
0001, 'abc']", "{'abc': 'ABC'}", '()', '[]', '{}', '<__main__.C i...at 0x00AA185
0>', "{1: [None, 1, 2L, 3.1400000000000001, 'xyzzy', (1, 2L), ...], 'xyz': 2L}"]

['None', '1', '2L', '3.1400000000000001', "'xyzzy'", '(1, 2L)', "[3.140000000000
0001, 'abc']", "{'abc': 'ABC'}", '()', '[]', '{}']
['None', '1', '2L', '3.1400000000000001', "'xyzzy'", '(1, 2L)', "[3.140000000000
0001, 'abc']", "{'abc': 'ABC'}", '()', '[]', '{}', '<__main__.C i...at 0x00AA1D7
8>']
['None', '1', '2L', '3.1400000000000001', "'xyzzy'", '(1, 2L)', "[3.140000000000
0001, 'abc']", "{'abc': 'ABC'}", '()', '[]', '{}', '<__main__.C i...at 0x00B5380
0>', "{1: [None, 1, 2L, 3.1400000000000001, 'xyzzy', (1, 2L), ...], 'xyz': 2L}"]

Creating makefiles in src...
Generating Visual Studio project files...
execute: File or path is not found (C:\Qt\bin\qmake)
Qmake failed, return code -1

Generating Makefiles...
execute: File or path is not found (C:\Qt\bin\qmake)
Qmake failed, return code -1