How do I run a Python program in the Command Prompt in Windows 7

Question

I m trying to figure out how to run Python programs with the Command Prompt on Windows 7   I should have figured this out by now     When I typed  quot python quot  into the command prompt  I got the following error    python  is not recognized as an internal or external command  operable program or batch file   The first place I found when looking for help was this site  http   docs python org faq windows html how-do-i-run-a-python-program-under-windows  It was somewhat helpful  but the tutorial was written for Windows 2000 and older  so it was minimally helpful for my Windows 7 machine  I attempted the following   For older versions of Windows the easiest way to do this is to edit the C  AUTOEXEC BAT  gt file  You would want to add a line like the following to AUTOEXEC BAT   This file did not exist on my machine  unless I m mistaken   Next  I tried this   here  How do I run a Python program    Putting Python In Your Path Windows In order to run programs  your operating system looks in various places  and tries to match the name of the program   command you typed with some programs along the way  In windows  control panel  gt  system  gt  advanced  gt   Environmental Variables   gt  system variables - gt  Path this needs to include  C  Python26   or equivalent   If you put it at the front  it will be the first place looked  You can also add it at the end  which is possibly saner  Then restart your prompt  and try typing  python   If it all worked  you should get a  quot  gt  gt  gt  quot  prompt   This was relevant enough for Windows 7  and I made my way to the System Variables  I added a variable  quot python quot   with the value  quot C  Python27 quot  I continued to get the error  even after restarting my computer  Anyone know how to fix this

User · Answer

Just want to mention  when you do   cd C  Python27 python Tools Scripts win add2path py   The PATH variable in  user variables for administrator  is changed   But you can also follow the others  answer to open    System -  advanced system settings -  advanced -  Environment Variables    and modify add the variable Path in  System Variables   add  C  Python27 at the end of it

User · Answer

Goto the Start Menu Right Click  Computer  Select  Properties  A dialog should pop up with a link on the left called  Advanced system settings   Click it  In the System Properties dialog  click the button called  Environment Variables   In the Environment Variables dialog look for  Path  under the System Variables window  Add   C  Python27  to the end of it  The semicolon is the path separator on windows  Click Ok and close the dialogs  Now open up a new command prompt and type  python   If still the problem persists then type  py  instead of  python  in command prompt  might help

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press start button then type cmd  - Note you will need to run the command prompt as  Adminstrator    write setx -m path   path  C  Python27  then press enter    here -m for giving accessing permission to all users and in Python27 27 is version 2 7    path   will prevent the original value from destroying  C  Python27 will be appended to the current Path value   that s it you are done

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Use this PATH in Windows 7   C  Python27 C  Python27 Lib site-packages  C  Python27 Scripts

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I also found the same problem even though i ve added the path in the environment variable  Finally  I put my  C  Python27  in the FRONT part of the  PATH  in environment variable and after restarting the cmd  it works     I hope this can help

User · Answer

All the steps you have performed are correct  except one step  instead creating one separate variable  try below steps    Search for python exe file  find the parent folder  Copy the folder path like on which python installation files resides Now go to the control panel-system-advanced settings-environment variables  Find Path variable paste the copied folder path here and add   Now all set for the execution goto cmd type python you must see the version details

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You need to edit the environment variable named PATH  and add  c  python27 to the end of that  The semicolon separates one pathname from another  you will already have several things in your PATH    Alternately  you can just type  c  python27 python   at the command prompt without having to modify any environment variables at all

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Python comes with a script that takes care of setting up the windows path file for you   After installation  open command prompt  cmd  Go to the directory you installed Python in  cd C  Python27  Run python and the win add2path py script in Tools Scripts  python exe Tools Scripts win add2path py  Now you can use python as a command anywhere

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For Windows 10  amp  Python 3 5 1 users   While installing Python on Windows 10  please don t forget to check the  Add to cmd prompt  option before hitting the  Install   This would help in easily access python from cmd   If the option was not checked  then please use Set Path in cmd to see if it is available as executables or not  If not  Navigate to Start    Control Panel    System and Security    System    Advanced System Settings    Advanced    Environment Variables      Select PATH from System Variables and Edit it  Then copy  C  Python35 cmd  in the new line  After this please add  PY to PATHEXT in the same procedure   Also please check if Start    Control Panel    System and Security    System    Advanced System Settings    Advanced    Environment Variables      User variables from Username    PATH is containing these two lines -  C  Users Username AppData Local Programs Python Python35-32 Scripts    amp   C  Users Username AppData Local Programs Python Python35-32    Else please add them manually   Ref  https   docs python org 3 using windows html

User · Answer

Even after going through many posts  it took several hours to figure out the problem  Here is the detailed approach written in simple language to run python via command line in windows   1  Download executable file from python org Choose the latest version and download Windows-executable installer  Execute the downloaded file and let installation complete   2  Ensure the file is downloaded in some administrator folder   Search file location of Python application  Right click on the  exe file and navigate to its properties  Check if it is of the form   C  Users        If NO  you are good to go and jump to step 3  Otherwise  clone the Python37 or whatever version you downloaded to one of these locations   C      C  Program Files    C  Program Files  x86       3  Update the system PATH variable This is the most crucial step and there are two ways to do this -  Follow the second one preferably   1  MANUALLY      - Search for  Edit the system Environment Variables  in the search bar  WINDOWS 10      - In the System Properties dialog  navigate to  Environment Variables       - In the Environment Variables dialog look for  Path  under the System Variables window     Ensure to click on Path under bottom window named System Variables and not under user variables     - Edit the Path Variable by adding location of Python37  PythonXX folder  I added following line -    C  Program Files  x86  Python37 C  Program Files  x86  Python37 Scripts    - Click Ok and close the dialogs   2  SCRIPTED  - Open the command prompt and navigate to Python37 XX folder using cd command  - Write the following statement -  python exe Tools Scripts win add2path py   You can now use python in the command prompt   1  Using Shell Type python in cmd and use it  2  Executing a  py file Type python filename py to execute it

User · Answer

in powershell enter the following     Environment   SetEnvironmentVariable  Path     env Path C  Python27    User     close and open the powershell and try again  this should solve your problem

User · Answer

first make sure u enter the path environmental variable  C   path  path  C  Python27    press Enter   C  Python27 python file name   press Enter

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You don t add any variables to the System Variables   You take the existing  Path  system variable  and modify it by adding a semi-colon after  then c  Python27

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For windows 8  just type  py

User · Answer

Go to the Start Menu Right Click  Computer  Select  Properties  A dialog should pop up with a link on the left called  Advanced system settings   Click it  In the System Properties dialog  click the button called  Environment Variables   In the Environment Variables dialog look for  Path  under the System Variables window  Add   C  Python27  to the end of it  The semicolon is the path separator on windows  Click Ok and close the dialogs  Now open up a new command prompt and type  python  or if it says error type  py  instead of  python

User · Answer

On Windows you use C  Python27 python exe instead of python   If you add C  Python27 to your path  you can shorten it to just python exe  but you do not need to do this

User · Answer

You need to add C  Python27 to your system PATH variable  not a new variable named  python    Find the system PATH environment variable  and append to it a    which is the delimiter  and the path to the directory containing python exe  e g  C  Python27   See below for exact steps   The PATH environment variable lists all the locations that Windows  and cmd exe  will check when given the name of a command  e g   python   it also uses the PATHEXT variable for a list of executable file extensions to try   The first executable file it finds on the PATH with that name is the one it starts   Note that after changing this variable  there is no need to restart Windows  but only new instances of cmd exe will have the updated PATH  You can type set PATH at the command prompt to see what the current value is     Exact steps for adding Python to the path on Windows 7     Computer -  System Properties  or Win Break  -  Advanced System Settings Click the Environment variables    button  in the Advanced tab  Edit PATH and append  C  Python27 to the end  substitute your Python version  Click OK  Note that changes to the PATH are only reflected in command prompts opened after the change took place

User · Answer

So after 30 min of R amp D i realized that after setup the PATH at environment variable  i e     C  Python 27      just restart  now open cmd    C   cd Python27 C   Python27  python exe  USE python exe with extension  alternative option is    if the software is installed properly directly run Python program  your command line screen will automatically appear without cmd   Thanks

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It has taken me some effort looking for answers here  on the web  and and in the Python documentation  and testing on my own  to finally get my Python scripts working smoothly on my Windows machines  WinXP and Win7   So  I just blogged about it and am pasting that below in case it s useful to others  Sorry it s long  and feel free to improve it  I m no expert    UPDATE  Python 3 3 now includes the Python Launcher for Windows  which allows you to type py  rather than python  to invoke the default interpreter  or py -2  py -3  py -2 7  etc  It also supports shebang lines  allowing the script itself to specify  For versions prior to 3 3  the launcher is available as a separate download  http   docs python org 3 whatsnew 3 3 html    Running Python scripts conveniently under Windows  Maybe you re creating your own Python scripts  or maybe someone has given you one for doing something with your data files  Say you ve acquired a Python script and have saved it to  D  my scripts ApplyRE py   You want to run it conveniently by either double-clicking it or typing it into the command line from any location  with the option of passing parameters to it like this  -o means  overwrite the output file if it already exists      ApplyRE infile txt outfile txt -o   Say you also have a data file   C  some files some lexicon txt   The simplest option is to move the file or the script so they re in the same location  but that can get messy  so let s assume that they ll stay separate   Making sure Windows can find the Python interpreter  After installing Python  verify that typing python into a command prompt works  and then type exit   to get back out of the Python interpreter     C   gt python Python 3 2  r32 88445  Feb 20 2011  21 29 02   MSC v 1500 32 bit  Intel   on win32 Type  help    copyright    credits  or  license  for more information   gt  gt  gt  exit   C   gt    If this doesn t work  you ll need to append something like   C  Python32   without quotes  to the PATH environment variable  See PATHEXT below for instructions   Associating Python with  py and  pyc  Verify that double-clicking on ApplyRE py runs it   It should also have a Python logo as its icon and be labeled  Python File   by the way   If this isn t already done  right-click on a  py file  choose Open With  Choose Program  and check  Always use     This association improves convenience but isn t strictly necessary--you can specify  python  every time you want to run a script  like this   D  my scripts gt python ApplyRE py lexicon-sample txt -o Running    Done    Here s a very specific variation  which is optional unless you need to specify a different version of the interpreter   D  my scripts gt c  python32 python ApplyRE py lexicon-sample txt -o Running    Done    But that s a pain  Fortunately  once Python is installed  in the PATH  and associated with  py  then double-clicking a  py file or directly typing it as a command should work fine  Here  we seem to be running the script directly--it s nice and simple to run it on a sample file that s located in the  my scripts  folder along with the script   D  my scripts gt ApplyRE py lexicon-sample txt -o Running    Done    Omitting the  py extension  editing PATHEXT   To further reduce typing  you can tell Windows that  py  and perhaps  pyc files  are executable  To do this  right-click Computer and choose Properties  Advanced  Environment Variables  System Variables  Append    PY  PYC   without quotes  to the existing PATHEXT variable  or else create it if you re certan it doesn t exist yet  Close and reopen the command prompt  You should now be able to omit the  py  FYI  doing so would cause ApplyRE exe or ApplyRE bat to run instead  if one existed    D  my scripts gt ApplyRE lexicon-sample txt -o Running    Done    Adding scripts to the system PATH  If you re going to use your scripts often from the command prompt  it s less important if doing so via using BAT files   then you ll want to add your scripts  folder to the system PATH   Next to PATHEXT you should see a PATH variable  append   D  my scripts  to it  without quotes   This way you can run a script from some other location against the files in current location  like this   C  some files gt ApplyRE  some lexicon txt   some lexicon OUT txt  -o Running    Done    Success  That s pretty much all you need to do to streamline the command-line   Running directly without tweaking the PATH  If you re a fast typist or don t mind creating a batch file for each situation  you can specify full paths  for the script  or for the parameters  instead of tweaking PATH   C  some files gt  d  my scripts ApplyRE py   some lexicon txt   some lexicon OUT txt  -o Running    Done  C  some files gt d  D   gt cd  my scripts  D  my scripts gt ApplyRE py  c  some files some lexicon txt   c  some files some lexicon OUT txt  -o Running    Done    Creating shortcuts or batch files  If  py is associated with an installed Python  you can just double-click ApplyRE py to run it  but the console may appear and disappear too quickly to read its output  or failure    And to pass parameters  you d need to first do one of the following   a  Right-click and create a shortcut  Right-click the shortcut to edit properties and append parameters to Target   b  Create a batch file--a plain text file with a distinct name such as ApplyRErun bat  This option is probably better because you can ask it to pause so you can see the output  Here is a sample BAT file s contents  written to be located and run from c  some files    python  d  my scripts ApplyRE py   some lexicon txt   some lexicon OUT txt  -o pause   Advanced  appending to PYTHONPATH  This usually isn t necessary  but one other environment variable that may be relevant is PYTHONPATH  If we were to append d  my scripts to that variable  then other Python scripts in other locations could make use of those via import statements

User · Answer

You have to put the python path in the PATH variable   In the System Variables section  you should have User Variables and System Variables  Search for the PATH variable and edit its value  adding at the end  C  python27   The   is to tell the variable to add a new path to this value  and the rest  is just to tell which path that is   On the other hand  you can use   python  to add the variable you created

User · Answer

Modify the PATH variable too and append   python  otherwise the executable can not be found

User · Answer

Assuming you have Python2 7 installed    Goto the Start Menu Right Click  Computer  Select  Properties  A dialog should pop up with a link on the left called  Advanced system settings   Click it  In the System Properties dialog  click the button called  Environment Variables   In the Environment Variables dialog look for  Path  under the System Variables window  Add   C  Python27  to the end of it  The semicolon is the path separator on windows  Click Ok and close the dialogs   Now open up a new command prompt and type  python    It should work

User · Answer

First install the Python into your windows by using this url and then add path variable as   c  python27

[python] How do I run a Python program in the Command Prompt in Windows 7?

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