exiftool 'hangs' in Windows 10.0.15063 (64 bit)

[BrianFisk]

I downloaded the 10.75 zip file as instructed but whatever I do when I run the exiftool.exe it just hangs there waiting for input.  All it seems to accept is cntrl-C which reports 'terminating on signal SIGINT(2).

Environment is Windows 10 Home: build 15063.729 64 bit version running on x64 processor

Thanks

Brian Fisk
Salisbury, UK

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Brian,

It is sometimes a challenge to convince Windows 10 to run exiftool.

Windows Defender is usually the problem.  I think that these posts may hold a solution:

https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php/topic,7425.msg37707.html#msg37707

https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php/topic,7410.msg37621.html#msg37621

The second possibility is a permission problem which may be solved by right clicking on exiftool, then selecting "Run this program as administrator" from the Compatibility settings.

- Phil

[BrianFisk]

Thanks Phil,

I changed the PAR_GLOBAL_TMP_DIR and PAR_GLOBAL_TEMP variables to C:\Temp using the setex command.  I also set exiftool.exe to run as administrator and turned Windows Defender off.  Finally it is working. 

Incidentally your link to the PAR environment variables doesn't work any more so I used http://search.cpan.org/dist/PAR/lib/PAR/Environment.pod instead

Brian

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for reporting back.  Do you know specifically which of the 4 things that you did were required to fix your problem?  Or were all of them necessary?

- Phil

[BrianFisk]

'fraid not but I suspect the PAR global variables were part of the problem ...

Briuan

[DaveBurton]

This happens to me with exiftool-12.64.zip. I've tried all four of those fixes, with no effect.

exiftool.exe is in the C:\Windows\ folder.  I also tried moving it to my C:\bin32\ folder (which is also on my PATH).

When I run exiftool.exe from the cmd.exe prompt, either "normal" or "as Administrator," it just hangs, until I press either Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break to abort it. If I run it from Windows File Explorer, it opens a command prompt window and hangs. I also tried it from PowerShell.

Ctrl-Break aborts it immediately with:

Terminating on signal SIGBREAK(21)
^C

Ctrl-C sometimes aborts on the first try, sometimes on the second try. It never takes more than three Ctrl-Cs. When it aborts it reports either:

Terminating on signal SIGINT(2)
^C

or else just:

^C

with about equal probability.

One time it reported:

Warning: something's wrong at C:/Perl/lib/Exporter/Heavy.pm line 55.

There is no C:\Perl\ folder on my computer. However, I do have Strawberry Perl (v5.32.0) installed here:
C:\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl.EXE

This is on 64-bit Windows 10.0.19045 Home, on an old Dell Inspiron 620 Desktop computer.

===================================
UPDATE:

I tried the 64-bit Oliver Betz installer, and it works fine:

https://oliverbetz.de/pages/Artikel/ExifTool-for-Windows

[Phil Harvey]

I was going to suggest trying Oliver's version.  I think that is the way to go.

- Phil