Python setup guide for Windows

Related
See also my post on setting up a Git development environment and R on Windows.

Windows without WSL

Check if you have Windows Terminal installed. If not, install it from the Microsoft Store.
Launch a Windows Terminal instance. This should start a PowerShell session.

Update the PowerShell execution policy by running the following command:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Run Get-ExecutionPolicy to check if it is set to RemoteSigned. If not, try setting it again in a terminal with administrative rights.
Check if winget (the Windows package manager) is installed. The following command should bring up details about winget. If not, install it from the Microsoft Store.
```
winget --help
```
Note
When using winget for the first time, you will be asked to accept some terms and conditions.
Install a text editor. We will use Visual Studio Code.
```
winget install vscode
```

Find an appropriate Python version to install using the following command.

winget search --tag python --cmd python --source winget

This will output the following:

Name            Id                  Version     Match
-----------------------------------------------------------
Python 3        Python.Python.3.9   3.9.13      Tag: python
Python 3.12     Python.Python.3.12  3.12.0      Tag: python
Python 3.11     Python.Python.3.11  3.11.6      Tag: python
Python 3.10     Python.Python.3.10  3.10.11     Tag: python
Python 2        Python.Python.2     2.7.18150   Tag: python
Python Launcher Python.Launcher     3.12.0      Tag: python
Miniconda3      Anaconda.Miniconda3 py39_4.10.3 Tag: python
Anaconda3       Anaconda.Anaconda3  2023.09     Tag: python

Install Python. At the time of writing this guide, the latest version was 3.12, so I am installing 3.11.
```
winget install python.python.3.11
```
Check if Python was installed correctly. This command should display the version.
```
py --version
```
Launch Visual Studio Code and install the following extensions:
- Python
- Jupyter
Create a project folder, e.g. in C:\User\Username\Documents\project_folder.

Create a virtual environment in the project folder.

cd C:\User\Username\Documents\project_folder
py -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate

Install appropriate packages (e.g. JupyterLab) in the virtual environment.

py -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
py -m pip install jupyterlab matplotlib pandas

Create an example Jupyter Notebook in the project folder, e.g. my_notebook.ipynb.
Try to open the notebook using either VS Code or JupyterLab. To launch JupyterLab, run the following in the terminal from the project folder, which will launch a web browser instance:
```
jupyter lab
```
Activate the kernel in the Jupyter notebook and start coding!

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) - Ubuntu

In PowerShell, install Visual Studio Code and WSL (Ubuntu):
```
winget install vscode
wsl --install
```
Install the WSL VS Code extension locally in Windows.
Launch an Ubuntu Bash shell instance from Windows Terminal.
Python should already be installed; check its version:
```
python --version
```
Note
Note that it’s python on Ubuntu, not py.
Launch VS Code using the WSL shell from the project folder’s directory:
```
cd C:/User/Username/Documents/project_folder
code .
```
Install local VS Code extensions (e.g. Python and Jupyter) in WSL.

Set-up a virtual environment in the project folder and install relevant packages:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
python -m pip install jupyterlab matplotlib pandas

Python setup guide for Windows

Nithiya Streethran

Windows without WSL

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) - Ubuntu

Further reading