Installing Python on Windows 7

[Karen Hermann]

I just downloaded Python 3.5.2 for Windows, which I installed on a Windows 7 laptop.  Disclaimer up front, I am a former lapsed programmer that has been away from it and all things Windows since Windows XP.  :)    I’m back to being a bit of a newbie again.  

It’s a relatively clean laptop, just got it, and rarely use it, and there’s nothing else on it except Microsoft Office 2013.  I downloaded Python, installed it, tried to run it, and got this message:   The program can’t start because api-ms-win-crd-runtime-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer.  Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem. 

I’ve redownloaded it and reinstalled it several times, each time deleting all traces of it before trying again.  I’ve even disabled my virus-scanner (Sophos), thinking that might be interfering but that didn’t help either.  

Nothing is helping, I can’t get past this. 

Can you help please, is there something wrong with my system / setup, should I be downloading a different Python version?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!