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/ (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 (https://oliverbetz.de/pages/Artikel/ExifTool-for-Windows)) 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 (https://oliverbetz.de/pages/Artikel/ExifTool-for-Windows). 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 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils_backdoor).
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?