For anyone moving from a Mac to a Windows PC with years of shows built in QLab.
Short answer
QLab itself won’t run on Windows, but ZasCue — a free, QLab-style cue player — opens QLab 4 workspaces. Copy the whole show folder to your PC, choose File → Import QLab…, pick that folder, and ZasCue rebuilds the cue list and links the audio for you. QLab 5 (.qlab5) files aren’t supported yet.
Switching from Mac to Windows is painful for one reason above all: the shows. Rebuilding a hundred cues by hand — every fade, every pre-wait, every group — is the kind of job that makes people stay on an old laptop for years. You don’t have to.
What’s actually inside a .qlab4 file
A .qlab4 file is your QLab 4 workspace: the cue list, cue numbers and names, timings, groups, fades and a note of where each sound file lives. It does not contain the audio itself. The sounds sit next to it in the show folder, usually in an audio subfolder. That’s why you bring the whole folder across, not just the .qlab4.
Step by step
Copy the whole show folder from the Mac to your Windows PC — the .qlab4 file and every audio file it uses. A USB stick or any cloud drive is fine.
Open ZasCue and choose File → Import QLab… (or the Import from QLab card on the start screen).
Pick the show folder, not the file. ZasCue looks through it, finds the .qlab4 and every sound it refers to.
Check the rebuilt cue list. Cues ZasCue couldn’t match to a sound file are marked as missing — drag those files onto ZasCue and each one is re-linked by its file name.
Save it as a ZasCue project (File → Save) and do a full run of the show on the Windows machine before the real performance.
Use the Windows app or Chrome/Edge. Importing needs to open a whole folder, which the downloadable ZasCue.exe and Chrome or Edge can do. Firefox and Safari can’t.
What comes across, and what doesn’t
Comes across
Cue list, order, numbers and names
Groups, including ones that fire together
Fade cues, still pointing at the right cue
Pre-wait, post-wait, auto-continue and auto-follow
Start and end points, loops and play count
Levels and volume automation
Colours, flags, notes, hotkeys and MIDI triggers
Doesn’t
Video cues
Lighting and DMX
Network and OSC cues
QLab 5 workspaces (.qlab5)
Cue types ZasCue doesn’t have arrive as notes in the right place, so you can see exactly what needs another tool instead of it silently vanishing.
What about QLab 5?
QLab 5 saves workspaces in a different format, and ZasCue can’t read .qlab5 yet. If you still have the QLab 4 version of a show, import that. If QLab 5 support matters to you, tell me — it’s on the list, and a real sample file is the thing that would unblock it.
Tips for the move
Keep the original folder untouched somewhere safe. Import from a copy.
File names don’t need to be perfect. When you copy files from a Mac, Windows replaces characters it doesn’t allow (like : or ?). ZasCue expects that and still matches them.
Re-check levels on the new system. A different interface and different speakers can make the same cue sound louder or quieter. Choose your outputs in Tools → Audio outputs.
Do a full run-through before the first performance. It’s where you catch the one cue that pointed at a file you forgot to copy.
In short: don’t rebuild anything. Copy the show folder, import it, drag in anything missing, and you’re running your QLab show on Windows.
Want to know what ZasCue does the same as QLab, and what it can’t do? See the QLab vs ZasCue comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Can I open a QLab file on Windows?
QLab itself only runs on macOS, but ZasCue opens QLab 4 workspaces. Choose File → Import QLab…, pick the show folder, and it rebuilds the cue list and links the audio it finds there.
Does ZasCue open QLab 5 (.qlab5) files?
Not yet. It imports QLab 4 workspaces (.qlab4). If you still have the QLab 4 version of a show, import that one.
Are the audio files imported too?
Yes, as long as they’re inside the folder you choose. Anything it can’t find can be dragged in afterwards and is re-linked by file name.
Do I need QLab installed on Windows?
No. You only need the show folder from the Mac. ZasCue reads the .qlab4 file directly.
Is ZasCue free?
Yes — completely free, no account, no ads. It runs as a single portable file on Windows 10 and 11, or in Chrome or Edge on any computer.