Backticks fail silently under Windows 7, 64 bit, and Perl 32bit. This code produced an empty string:

my $b= `dir`;

I fell into this trap, then realized I shifted to a 64bit windows Professional since last running Perl under Windows Vista.

The cure - get rid of all old 32 bit Perl installations, install 64 bit.

In reply to Backtick failure in Windows 7 by wbarrett

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