Nonfunctional EXE

[nintendraw]

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Question

On Windows 10, after downloading +/- rightclick -> Unblocking the exe file, clicking it results in a CMD window that disappears within 3 seconds without any input given. The program seemed to be working fine when I downloaded the whole zip + exe not long ago (< 3 months). Has something changed; or what else can I try to get the exe working again? Thanks!

(PS the reference links given in the template don't work anymore via DMCA takedown.)

[Prestinium]

The .exe file is not meant to be opened directly, at least I haven't seen it done that way. You'll need to add the folder where the .exe file resides to your PATH variables. Afterwards you can open command prompt and call upon youtube-dl from any location.

Edit: Alternatively you can type cmd from the file explorer address bar from where the youtube-dl.exe resides and that should work too.

[bbepis]

@Prestinium is correct. youtube-dl is not a regular program that shows an interface; it's a tool that can only be used on the command line.
If you're not sure how that works, there's a good overview/tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wfUUZvybPY

I have heard that GUIs for youtube-dl work with this fork (such as https://mrs0m30n3.github.io/youtube-dl-gui/) if you point it to use the .exe from this fork. However I have not tried this myself

[nintendraw]

Thanks for the help, both! I must have forgotten that the last (and only, hence I forgot) time I used the program before, I had to navigate to the program's folder to get the command to work. That tedium is probably the result of me not knowing how to properly add something to PATH...

(PS one attempt didn't get the GUI to work. I might've installed it wrong though.)