In "emacs -Q", if the file "xyzzy" does not exist on the path, (call-process "xyzzy") now leaves this in the *Messages* buffer: forward-sexp: Searching for program: Permission denied, xyzzy In older versions the entry in the message buffer is a true statement: eval: Searching for program: No such file or directory, xyzzy (I also noticed debug-on-error is now 't' in "emacs -Q". This isn't in the NEWS, unless I missed it?) In GNU Emacs 27.0.50 (build 13, x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2019-10-01 built on MACHINE Repository revision: cbc507779b8f56ce0abf596416e8e3847de88e10 Repository branch: buster Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.18890 System Description: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (v10.0.1903.18890.1000) Recent messages: For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Entering debugger... Continuing. forward-sexp: Searching for program: Permission denied, xyzzy Configured using: 'configure --config-cache --with-modules --without-pop --without-dbus --without-gconf --without-gsettings 'CFLAGS=-O0 -ggdb3'' Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND NOTIFY W32NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 HARFBUZZ ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS MODULES THREADS JSON PDUMPER LCMS2 GMP Important settings: value of $LANG: ENG locale-coding-system: cp1252 Major mode: Lisp Interaction Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny dired dired-loaddefs format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec password-cache epa derived epg epg-config gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs text-property-search time-date subr-x seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile compile comint ansi-color ring cconv mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils help-fns radix-tree cl-print debug backtrace help-mode easymenu find-func cl-loaddefs cl-lib tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32 ls-lisp disp-table term/w32-win w32-win w32-vars term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote threads w32notify w32 lcms2 multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 56362 12184) (symbols 48 6971 1) (strings 32 19777 2016) (string-bytes 1 617340) (vectors 16 11386) (vector-slots 8 141766 11600) (floats 8 25 161) (intervals 56 229 7) (buffers 992 12))