On updating Gpg4Win to 4.4.0 on a Windows 10 machine by right-click run-as-admin on the installer, then rebooting to the non-admin account, the first time I tried to verify a download (Openoffice) by double clicking its .asc file, I got two error popups, both saying:
The procedure entry point npth_get_version could not be located in the dynamic link library C:\Program Files(x86)\GnuPG\binadirmnger.exe
I found that this had started Kleopatra in the background and it could be seen in the ‘hidden icons’ on my toolbar. On opening this (by double clicking the Kleopatra icon in the hidden icons), it showed that the tool had successfully run without any errors.
With Kleopatra still running, each time I tried that double click on that .asc file, the tool worked correctly without errors. However, the pop-ups appeared every time I tried that double-click without Kleopatra running in the background.
As a second test, I tried the same with the .sig file for the GPG update itself. Again, when Kleopatra was not already running, I got two popups but it started Kleopatra and ran successfully. But when Kleopatra was already started, the signature check ran normally without popups.
We have a similar problem here on Windows 10 and Windows 11 machines:
Upgraded to Gpg4Win 4.4.0. The installer was executed with a local admin account and not the standard user account. But after a restart of the machine, which was suggested by the installer, a standard user gets error messages, e.g. in Outlook when opening the GpgOL Dialog or in Kleopatra when checking for updates.
Hint for developers: It seems that the dirmngr.exe does not contain the export information (e.g. via providing it in a .def file) so that other modules can access the npth_get_version function, which has been introduced there recently. Or the access of this function is not performed in the intended way, ig it was never meant to call this function across module / process boundaries.
Hi @dwidz, the best way to install Gpg4win is as administrator because otherwise you might get different problems. Can you try that and see if that already solves the problem?
thank you for the answer.
As already noted in my post above, we upgraded the Gpg4Win version with a local Administrator account, so installer rights should not be the problem.
From the error message, I made the conclusion that some process tries to access the npth_get_version function. But I verified that this function is not exported by dirmngr.exe, hence the message is right. Since the function is new in this release, it seems to be not so unrealistic that something went wrong with the implementation of it - especially the missing export. But this is only my observation from the outside.
We did not try a complete deinstall and reinstall, because we fear that the data (keys and configuration) might get lost during this process. In addition, because of my investigation that I described above, I see only very low propability that a reinstall will help.
I have tried to reproduce this but I have not seen any error messages in my test installations of Gpg4win 4.4.0.
Neither when checking for updates nor when opening the GpgOL configuration dialog.
Was this really the exact error message? Because the path here is C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin\dirmnger.exe I believe this is a typo on your side.
Though you should always make a backup (just in case), deinstallation does not affect the data in a users GNUPGHOME (usually at %APPDATA%\gnupg). Also the configuration made in config files in that folder is not affected.
But any global configuration is affected, it will get removed.