With all due respect, “I’m from Missouri ... show me.”   While I can be convinced of anything, “my BS detector is going off” when you categorically say that “backticks don’t work” in this changed environment when identical code in earlier days produced the desired result.   Therefore, please show the error of my ways – what, exactly, do you think is the underlying technical explanation for “a 32-bit application, i.e. the Perl interpreter,” suddenly losing the ability to do this?   You have obviously explored this issue at some length by now.   I will even concede that surely you are correct, that you really did know what you saw, and that I merely do not yet know why it could possibly be so.   Please tell us more about your findings.