Error: Exiftool not found! Metadata operations disabled

[yinleifu]

I keep getting this error with version 5.15 and now also 5.16. Previous versions such as 3.28, 3.42 and 4.27 seem to work fine, so I have exiftool on the PATH and it can be found. Somebody had a similar issue before, see https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php/topic,5485.msg26529.html#msg26529 but that was never clearly resolved. That thread has been viewed a lot but I don't know if that means many others have had the same problem.

I am running Windows 10 upgraded from Windows 8.1.

I have tried running ExiftoolGUI in the same directory as exiftool and in different directories with just the one version of ExiftoolGUI. I have tried deleting the ini file and not doing it.

An additional problem that seems to be related to the ini file existing or not is that sometimes after the ini has been created the ExiftoolGUI stops complaining about not finding exiftool and just crash. Older versions always work fine. v5 never works, in either of the tried scenarios.

Any ideas?

/Michael

[yinleifu]

Tried installing on another Windows 10 machine and there it works fine. Must be something with Windows that is not agreeing with ExiftoolGUI. Maybe a reinstallation will fix it but that's a pretty major things.

/Michael

[Gary]

I posted this in another thread in which someone seemed to have a similar issue.
I'll note it here, because, based on what you've said, it could be relevant.

There have been numerous reports of Windows 10 upgrades causing installed software to no longer work.
The same software installed on a machine with a clean install of Windows 10 usually works fine.
The question is whether this applies to you. If it is this problem, you should be having problems with other software, too.

[yinleifu]

Thanks Gary,
I am preparing myself for a clean install of W10. For once the upgrade seemed to work well, but I have had problems in the past and always gone for clean installs. Not this time with W10, though. I guess it's a lot harder to make an upgrade process work well since the starting state is so undefined and that there is still no guarantee.
/Michael

[Gary]

Michael;

As one who has had a number of machines, I have found that "dead" files tend to build up until they eventually cause an issue. If the Windows team could depend on not having to deal with software that didn't quite de-install completely, they would likely have fewer issues with upgrades. Unfortunately life is like that. So, the best option is to pick a good time for a complete re-install (usually at a major O/S upgrade) and do it. Usually; it has the side-benefit of ensuring we have all our license keys etc. on hand and our software/data backups done. (smile)