Can't run Python programs from the terminal window, how do I fix this? (Windows 10, Python version 3.8.5)
Question:
I’ve been studying Python for a month now and normally I run all my programs in Sublime Text 3.
Today I learn to run Python programs in the terminal window as introduced in this section of the Automate the Boring Stuff with Python book following this video. Basically, I followed the instruction in the video and created the hello.py file as below:
#! python3
print('Hello, World!')
Then I opened the Command Prompt to run the file with the command: py.exe c:usersdanhmypythonscriptshello.py,
an error pops-up and states that "This app can’t run on your PC" and a line says that Access is denied. I spent the whole day trying to fix this problem but still I couldn’t get it running.
One thing is when I change the directory of the Command Prompt to run the file to C:Windowssystem32 (or run the Command Prompt as Administrator) and then run the command py.exe c:usersdanhmypythonscriptshello.py, it runs the file without any problem as in this image.
Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Answers:
It looks like you’re trying to use Microsoft’s new Windows 10 Metro-based auto-installing version of Python. It’s included by default but, as you’ve found, it doesn’t work very well.
Try installing the version from the Python website.
If you’ve got a 32-bit copy of Windows, make sure to install the 32-bit version; Windows isn’t very good at running 64-bit programs from a 32-bit kernel. You can check by looking in your C: drive; if you haven’t got a Program Files (x86) folder, install the 32-bit version.
I solved the problem.
When I looked into my user directory at C:Users<Username>, it appears that there is a py.exe file that has 0 bytes.
I was told in this thread that the py.exe file shouldn’t be in my user directory so I removed that file and it fixed the problem.
I still don’t know how the py.exe file got into my user directory and why it has 0 bytes so I’m not sure this solution could help others. For now, I will accept my own answer because it solves the problem in my case.
python.exe inside my envScripts became 0kb for some reason. So I created another virtual-env and copied python.exe from there to this folder. then it started working.
I’ve been studying Python for a month now and normally I run all my programs in Sublime Text 3.
Today I learn to run Python programs in the terminal window as introduced in this section of the Automate the Boring Stuff with Python book following this video. Basically, I followed the instruction in the video and created the hello.py file as below:
#! python3
print('Hello, World!')
Then I opened the Command Prompt to run the file with the command: py.exe c:usersdanhmypythonscriptshello.py,
an error pops-up and states that "This app can’t run on your PC" and a line says that Access is denied. I spent the whole day trying to fix this problem but still I couldn’t get it running.
One thing is when I change the directory of the Command Prompt to run the file to C:Windowssystem32 (or run the Command Prompt as Administrator) and then run the command py.exe c:usersdanhmypythonscriptshello.py, it runs the file without any problem as in this image.
Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
It looks like you’re trying to use Microsoft’s new Windows 10 Metro-based auto-installing version of Python. It’s included by default but, as you’ve found, it doesn’t work very well.
Try installing the version from the Python website.
If you’ve got a 32-bit copy of Windows, make sure to install the 32-bit version; Windows isn’t very good at running 64-bit programs from a 32-bit kernel. You can check by looking in your C: drive; if you haven’t got a Program Files (x86) folder, install the 32-bit version.
I solved the problem.
When I looked into my user directory at C:Users<Username>, it appears that there is a py.exe file that has 0 bytes.
I was told in this thread that the py.exe file shouldn’t be in my user directory so I removed that file and it fixed the problem.
I still don’t know how the py.exe file got into my user directory and why it has 0 bytes so I’m not sure this solution could help others. For now, I will accept my own answer because it solves the problem in my case.
python.exe inside my envScripts became 0kb for some reason. So I created another virtual-env and copied python.exe from there to this folder. then it started working.