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?
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.
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.
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.