diff --git a/jdaviz/cli.py b/jdaviz/cli.py
index f6cb9d5c29..8ed0c1b580 100644
--- a/jdaviz/cli.py
+++ b/jdaviz/cli.py
@@ -86,17 +86,8 @@ def run_solara(host, port, theme, browser, production: bool = True):
     server.serve_threaded()
     server.wait_until_serving()
     if browser == "qt":
-        from qtpy.QtWidgets import QApplication
-        from qtpy.QtWebEngineWidgets import QWebEngineView
-        from qtpy import QtCore
-
-        app = QApplication([""])
-        web = QWebEngineView()
-        web.resize(1000, 1000)
-        web.setUrl(QtCore.QUrl(server.base_url))
-        web.show()
-
-        app.exec_()
+        from . import qt
+        qt.run_qt(server.base_url)
     else:
         import webbrowser
         controller = webbrowser.get(None if browser == 'default' else browser)
diff --git a/jdaviz/qt.py b/jdaviz/qt.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6d8c7b6c65
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jdaviz/qt.py
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+# this module is based on solara/server/qt.py
+import sys
+from typing import List
+import webbrowser
+try:
+    from qtpy.QtWidgets import QApplication
+    from qtpy.QtWebEngineWidgets import QWebEngineView
+    from qtpy.QtWebChannel import QWebChannel
+    from qtpy import QtCore, QtGui
+except ModuleNotFoundError as e:
+    raise ModuleNotFoundError("""Qt browser requires Qt dependencies, run `pip install jdaviz[qt]` to install.""") from e
+import signal
+from pathlib import Path
+
+HERE = Path(__file__).parent
+
+
+# setUrlRequestInterceptor, navigationRequested and acceptNavigationRequest
+# all trigger the websocket to disconnect, so we need to block cross origin
+# requests on the frontend/browser side by intercepting clicks on links
+
+cross_origin_block_js = """
+var script = document.createElement('script');
+script.src = 'qrc:///qtwebchannel/qwebchannel.js';
+document.head.appendChild(script);
+script.onload = function() {
+    new QWebChannel(qt.webChannelTransport, function(channel) {
+        let py_callback = channel.objects.py_callback;
+
+        document.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
+            let target = event.target;
+            while (target && target.tagName !== 'A') {
+                target = target.parentNode;
+            }
+
+            if (target && target.tagName === 'A') {
+                const linkOrigin = new URL(target.href).origin;
+                const currentOrigin = window.location.origin;
+
+                if (linkOrigin !== currentOrigin) {
+                    event.preventDefault();
+                    console.log("Blocked cross-origin navigation to:", target.href);
+                    py_callback.open_link(target.href);  // Call Python method
+                }
+            }
+        }, true);
+    });
+};
+"""
+
+
+class PyCallback(QtCore.QObject):
+    @QtCore.Slot(str)
+    def open_link(self, url):
+        webbrowser.open(url)
+
+
+class QWebEngineViewWithPopup(QWebEngineView):
+    # keep a strong reference to all windows
+    windows: List = []
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.page().newWindowRequested.connect(self.handle_new_window_request)
+
+        # Set up WebChannel and py_callback object
+        self.py_callback = PyCallback()
+        self.channel = QWebChannel()
+        self.channel.registerObject("py_callback", self.py_callback)
+        self.page().setWebChannel(self.channel)
+
+        self.loadFinished.connect(self._inject_javascript)
+
+    def _inject_javascript(self, ok):
+        self.page().runJavaScript(cross_origin_block_js)
+
+    def handle_new_window_request(self, info):
+        webview = QWebEngineViewWithPopup()
+        geometry = info.requestedGeometry()
+        width = geometry.width()
+        parent_size = self.size()
+        if width == 0:
+            width = parent_size.width()
+        height = geometry.height()
+        if height == 0:
+            height = parent_size.height()
+        print("new window", info.requestedUrl(), width, height)
+        webview.resize(width, height)
+        webview.setUrl(info.requestedUrl())
+        webview.show()
+        QWebEngineViewWithPopup.windows.append(webview)
+        return webview
+
+
+def run_qt(url, app_name="Jdaviz"):
+    app = QApplication([])
+    web = QWebEngineViewWithPopup()
+    web.setUrl(QtCore.QUrl(url))
+    web.resize(1024, 1024)
+    web.show()
+
+    app.setApplicationDisplayName(app_name)
+    app.setApplicationName(app_name)
+    web.setWindowTitle(app_name)
+    app.setWindowIcon(QtGui.QIcon(str(HERE / "data/icons/imviz_icon.svg")))
+    if sys.platform.startswith("darwin"):
+        # Set app name, if PyObjC is installed
+        # Python 2 has PyObjC preinstalled
+        # Python 3: pip3 install pyobjc-framework-Cocoa
+        try:
+            from Foundation import NSBundle
+
+            bundle = NSBundle.mainBundle()
+            if bundle:
+                app_info = bundle.localizedInfoDictionary() or bundle.infoDictionary()
+                if app_info is not None:
+                    app_info["CFBundleName"] = app_name
+                    app_info["CFBundleDisplayName"] = app_name
+        except ModuleNotFoundError:
+            pass
+
+    # without this, ctrl-c does not work in the terminal
+    signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal.SIG_DFL)
+    app.exec_()