I seem to be completely unable to install qBittorrent as it force closes with no error message when I try to accept the license agreement. So far I have tried turning off the firewall, making an exception for it in Windows defender, disabling reputation based protection, and of course reboots, but nothing works.
I’ve seen other posts of people with the same issue on other forums but none of them had any solutions. Has anyone experienced this? How does one actually install this program?
Try an experimental build. https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/actions
What version of Windows? Is this a normal install of Windows or did you do anything different/custom?
Assuming Windows 10/11 try disabling Real-time protection (Virus & Threat Protection / Manage Settings / Real-time protection) at least temporarily during the install.
Also disable any other anti-virus/malware type software you have.
With all of that disabled re-download qBittorrent from the normal download sources https://www.qbittorrent.org/download
When you attempt to run the setup make sure to run it as administrator so it is elevated (do a shift right-click on the setup.exe file & select Run as administrator).
If the install finally works, before you re-enable Real-time protection you should add the installed qbittorrent.exe in the Windows Defender Exclusions and Controlled folder access (Virus & Threat Protection / Manage Settings / add or remove exclusions) and (Virus & Threat Protection / Manage ransomware protection / Allow an app through Controlled folder access). The installed qbittorrent is probably in C:\Program Files\qBittorrent\qbittorrent.exe or wherever your programs are normally installed.
If none of that worked then I’d go with the other commenters, run RAM and hard drive diagnostics & make sure that’s all working correctly.
Or maybe your Windows OS install is broken somehow, I’d run sfc and dism in those cases (a bit outside of scope of this community but you can search around for that).
I’d almost put money on it being AV. But I’d also think the installer wouldn’t just crash on locked file. That was my first thought too though since I don’t believe the qbt executable is signed.
since I don’t believe the qbt executable is signed.
Yup you are correct, another reason that anti-virus/malware type software will mess with the download or execution of the installer.
Based on the current info that’s kind of my initial hunch. The installer could crash if the user’s anti-virus/malware messed with it. We also don’t know if there is other software installed on the system doing things like that…
Otherwise, ruling out other things could be just that Windows itself is possibly borked. The sfc / dism method may fix that. Installers definitely crash when something is wrong with the Windows OS.
mind sharing crash logs?
This is what comes up in the log:
Faulting application name: qbittorrent_4.6.3_x64_setup.exe, version: 4.6.3.0, time stamp: 0x64a0dc67
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process ID: 0x7b5c
Faulting application start time: 0x01da5b5dcd3b728b
Faulting application path: E:\Downloads\qbittorrent_4.6.3_x64_setup.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report ID: 2644ec55-01ed-40fa-9337-a30e87d86f97
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Assuming you have a genuine installer that exception is commonly caused by corrupted or missing system files. (But not the only reason, ram issues, HDD issues and malware are some of the other potential reasons)
Research and understand these commands before using them. They attempt to resolve system file problems. Be sure to reboot after running both of them.
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
SFC /scannow
Additionally, you can check if you have the latest redistributable installed.
Install both x86 and x64.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170
Issue with ram? Run memtest. https://memtest.org/
Check for windows updates, power off PC and unplug from mains, hold power switch down for 10 seconds. Reseat ram.
If all that fails you can try a qbittorrent fork
Another way to install qbittorrent is through docker, but I dont know if that’s possible on windows, but I’d imagine it is.
It is, but there are some barriers not present on a *nix OS. Docker runs on the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) as a prerequisite.