Installer wants to update it's own EXE

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#46,413 opened on Mar 23, 2026 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Area-Quality Area-Setup/Install Issue-Bug Needs-Triage Product-General Severity-Medium

Dominant language: C
Stars: 139k
Forks: 8.6k
PR merge metrics: PR metrics pending

Description

### Microsoft PowerToys version

0.98.0

### Installation method

GitHub

### Area(s) with issue?

Installer

### Steps to reproduce

1. Download the machine wide EXE installer from Github
2. Start Directory Opus (download and install before)
3. Go to the directory where the EXE installer is
4. Start the installer "Run as administrator"
5. Installer runs until it stopps and the error occurs
6. Only when you close Directory Opus the installer continues and finishes.

### ✔️ Expected Behavior

Installer should finish without requiring Dirctory Opus to close.

### ❌ Actual Behavior

Installer hangs until Directory Opus will be closed.

This happens with the installer on my private and company computer since PowerToysSetup-x64 since a version 0.8x every time.

Directory Opus is a file manager.

PowerToysSetup is the only one installer with this error. Any other program I install (execute from Directory Opus) I never had this problem before.

### Upload Bug Report ZIP-file

[Clipboard Image.jpg](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a83466bd-3ac8-4049-96eb-742176404306)

### Additional Information

Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎2020-‎06-‎12
OS Build 19045.7058

### Other Software

Directory Opus 13.22
(and previous versions also)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the hang with the machine-wide PowerToysSetup-x64 EXE while Directory Opus 13.22 is open, using the listed Windows 10 22H2 steps and the attached bug report ZIP. Investigate the installer stage that waits until Directory Opus closes; done means the installer completes without requiring Directory Opus to exit.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack: github
Domain: desktop, release
Issue type: Bug
Difficulty: 4/5
Estimated time: 3-5 days
Activity status: Quiet
Clarity: Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness: 45/100