Changing QPalette Highlight doesn't work on Windows 7

[wysota]

However, when it comes to visual information such as color or layout, shouldn't it be somewhat consistent as much as possible even it's different platform?

No, I don't think so. If your program requires such things then I'd call it a misdesign.

For example, if item text color in a QListView means somwhat very important then I believe it should be preserved even the base OS is different. Since you mentioned "russian-chinese language barrier issue", I want to paraphrase the example. Both Russian and Chinese use "Red" as "stop" and "Green" as "go-ahead" in their traffic networks. =)

Suppose you want a red push-button to mark some important button in your program. What if the user of your program has such a theme installed in his system that all push buttons are by default red? If the OS guidelines state that the button colour is defined by the theme, relying on artificial colour settings is a misdesign and you should find a different highlighting mechanism (for example by rearranging widgets on the form so that the button is more exposed).

This is a common mistake to assume that if my desktop looks in some way, everybody's desktops look similar. And the second common problem is that people think that if they use a program in a specific way, everybody uses (or will want to use or just have to use because it's superior to their current habits) this program the same way too. It's quite egocentric to assume that, isn't it?