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ExifTool in Patch My PC Version 5.0.0.1

Started by RVST, October 25, 2024, 07:33:51 PM

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RVST

It's great that ExifTool has been added to Patch My PC Version 5.0.0.0.  However, it's not particularly useful in it's current form.

The issues are as follows:

1) Patch My PC just downloads a .zip file and doesn't unzip it.

2) The .zip file has the ExifTool version number in the file path. Version numbers in the path are a nuisance because the path to the ExifTool exe will change every single time it updates. It should be a fixed path that doesn't change – particularly as it's used as a command line tool.

3) The ExifTool executable has (-k) in the executable name 'exiftool(-k).exe', rather than the more conventional 'exiftool.exe' .

This is obviously not the fault of Patch My PC, it is due to the ExifTool developer doing things in a non user-friendly way.  However, it would be helpful if there was a way to improve this.

The ExifTool website does state to unzip it and rename 'exiftool(-k).exe' to 'exiftool.exe' for command line use.  See here (https://exiftool.org/):

Quote"The Windows executable archives include Perl. Just download and un-zip the appropriate archive then double-click on "exiftool(-k).exe" to read the application documentation, drag-and-drop files and folders to view meta information, or rename to "exiftool.exe" for command-line use. Note that if you move the .exe to another folder, you must also move the "exiftool_files" folder to the same location."

The ExifTool homepage also links to a more conventional installer (self-installing versions of ExifTool) that would be much more useful for Patch My PC.  However, the ExifTool developer just links to these instead of supplying them himself:

Quote"The Windows packages are based on work by Oliver Betz, and use his launcher. Oliver also provides self-installing versions of these executables. See this forum post if you have any problems/comments with these versions."

So, it could be possible for Patch My PC to resolve the issue by using these self-installing versions.  However, while these are linked to by the ExifTool developer from the official ExifTool homepage, as these installers are created and hosted by a third-party developer it could potentially open up the possibility of a xz Utils type of supply chain attack.

These self-installing versions of ExifTool put 'exiftool.exe' and the 'exiftool_files' folder in "C:\Program Files\ExifTool" (if installing for all users), which is really how it should be.  See the below screenshots.

Screenshot A (ExifTool installed by Patch My PC):
Screenshot A.png

Screenshot B (ExifTool installed by self-installing version of ExifTool):
Screenshot B.png

If Patch My PC does not want to use these self-installing versions due to them not being hosted on the official ExifTool website (which would be understandable, as they should come from the main developer himself), would there be a way to somehow replicate their behaviour instead of just downloading the .zip?