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I'm trying to set up the password caching utility that GitHub recommends for Windows 7 at the bottom of this page, and can't understand what the problem is (causing the program to stop working requiring me to close it).

I googled the error message and found a question with a very similar error (here),

Unhandled Exception: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The system cannot find the file specified
at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
at Git.Credential.WinStore.Program.InstallTheApp(String pathToGit, Boolean silent)
at Git.Credential.WinStore.Program.Main(String[] args)

indicating the error was in finding GIT in the path environment variable. My error lacks the "String pathToGit, ", meaning this isn't the case for me, so I've no clue as to why I'm unable to install (my first time with Git!)...

Unhandled Exception: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The system cannot find the file specified
at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
at Git.Credential.WinStore.Program.InstallTheApp(Boolean silent)
at Git.Credential.WinStore.Program.Main(String[] args)

Can anyone enlighten me? I don't speak command line very well but have tried to work it out, to no success.

Community
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Louis Maddox
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  • I really didn't have much success with that git-credential-winstore thingy. Plus it forced me to remember my password for each and every git hosting sites I wanted to push to. Instead, I use the encrypted `netrc` solution: my credentials for *all* my different remote site are in it, and I need to always remember *one* password: see http://stackoverflow.com/a/18362082/6309 (and it does not crash) – VonC Sep 20 '13 at 21:07
  • ah ok, I'm totally new so can't really evaluate the pro's and con's here, but I contacted the support @ GH and got advised to use the software from windows.github.com, which includes a password credential feature, so I'm gonna go with that. Thanks though @VonC ! – Louis Maddox Sep 21 '13 at 06:22
  • They are wrong on that one. Storing passwords in memory is not secure on Windows, and it is buggy. The pro for netrc is obvious: you list all your credentials in *one* file, but you only have to remember one password. – VonC Sep 21 '13 at 07:28
  • Even if you have only one credential (GitHub), you must have activated the two-factor authentication (https://help.github.com/articles/about-two-factor-authentication). That means your http password is now a 40-length string of random character, as I explain in http://stackoverflow.com/a/18607931/6309. Do you really want to enter 40 characters in each Windows session? – VonC Sep 21 '13 at 07:36
  • Storing passwords in memory is not secure (http://security.stackexchange.com/q/29019), it uses the CredMan (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/secauthn/security/authentication_functions.asp?frame=true#credentials_management_functions), as seen in the sources (https://gitcredentialstore.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#git-credential-winstore/NativeMethods.cs), illustrated here (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/peerchan/archive/2005/11/01/487834.aspx) – VonC Sep 21 '13 at 08:02
  • ... and "Windows Credential Management" again isn't secure, especially at work on our old Windows Xp: http://silverstr.ufies.org/blog/archives/000208.html – VonC Sep 21 '13 at 08:04

2 Answers2

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I know this is an old question, but I got this error as well on Windows 10 64 bit and the solution was:

  1. Download git-credential-winstore.exe and install it in
    c:\Program Files\Git
    (the default location for 64 bit Git install)
  2. Launch BINGW64
  3. Run this command:
    ./git-credential-winstore -i "C:\Program Files\Git\bin\git.exe"

It then worked for me.

David Thomas
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I got this error when I tried to run git-credential-winstore.exe by double-clicking it. I had success by going to a cygwin window (where I run git) and running it there.

I suspect it would have failed if I had tried to run it from a Windows command prompt window, as well.

Hope this helps.

user2171796
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