Fail to launch WinGHCi

Question

I just downloaded and installed Haskell Platform 8.2.1 on my computer running Windows 10. The installation succeeded, but when I start WinGHCi from the Start menu, WinGHCi pops up a dialog box showing the error message:

CreateGHCiProcess failed with failed with error2: The system cannot find the file specified.

If I press OK, the WinGHCi window disappears.

I tried to launch GHCi from the command prompt by typing C:>ghci and got the message

GHCi, version 8.2.1: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ :? for help
Access violation in generated code when reading 00007ffd2c957275

I also uninstall/reinstall Haskell Platform a few times, but the problem persists.

Anyone knows how to fix this problem?

By the way, I installed Haskell Platform 8.0.2 a few months ago, but I uninstalled it immediately and waited for the new version because it clashed with the Windows 10 Creator Update. Can this cause some conflicts somehow?

Answer 1

This is often a problem due to usage of HitmanPro antivirus, which injects itself into other processes in disruptive ways. See, e.g. http://haskell.1045720.n5.nabble.com/Getting-segmentation-fault-on-stack-cabal-any-command-including-stack-install-ghc-On-windows-td5866282.html for more details.

Answer 2

I had your first problem (CreateGHCiProcess failed with failed with error2: The system cannot find the file specified) and fixed it by adding

extra-prog-path: C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.2\msys\usr\bin
extra-lib-dirs: C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.2\mingw\lib
extra-include-dirs: C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.2\mingw\include

to the cabal config file (C:\Program Files\Haskell Platform\8.2.2\lib\package.conf.d\Cabal-2.0.1.0.conf) as instructed in the Windows installation instructions. It was not an antivirus issue.

Now I have a different second problem: when I start winghci.exe, a window opens but immediately dims and goes to Not responding

Call me crazy, but I don't think Haskell will really take off until it is possible to install it on Windows with a single double-click and run a "Hello world" program straight out of the box.

Back to an inferior programming language that actually works....