diff --git a/gui/mainwindow.cpp b/gui/mainwindow.cpp
index dc2888ace..08e9fe3e3 100644
--- a/gui/mainwindow.cpp
+++ b/gui/mainwindow.cpp
@@ -852,6 +852,9 @@ Settings MainWindow::getCppcheckSettings()
 
     Settings result;
 
+    const QString applicationFilePath = QCoreApplication::applicationFilePath();
+    result.exename = applicationFilePath.toStdString();
+
     const bool std = tryLoadLibrary(&result.library, "std.cfg");
     bool posix = true;
     if (result.posix())
diff --git a/lib/cppcheck.cpp b/lib/cppcheck.cpp
index 2b99f7241..6554198c6 100644
--- a/lib/cppcheck.cpp
+++ b/lib/cppcheck.cpp
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ namespace {
             if (obj.count("executable")) {
                 if (!obj["executable"].is<std::string>())
                     return "Loading " + fileName + " failed. executable must be a string.";
-                executable = getFullPath(obj["executable"].get<std::string>(), exename);
+                executable = getFullPath(obj["executable"].get<std::string>(), fileName);
                 return "";
             }