No module named 'encodings' Python 3.6 on Windows 10 failure

[MRAB]

On 2017-03-08 01:24, schneiderw at law.byu.edu wrote:
>
> Every attempt to make Python 3.6.0 or 3.6.1rc1 to run on Windows 10 has resulted in the error message shown below.  I was running Python 3.5.2 successfully and wanted to upgrade.
>
>
> C:\Python36-32>python
> Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: unable to load the file system codec
> ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'
>
> Current thread 0x00001774 (most recent call first):
>
> C:\Python36-32>
>
Which installer did you download?

I've installed both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Python 3.6.0 
(using python-3.6.0.exe and python-3.6.0-amd64.exe respectively) and 
they're both working perfectly.

In <python_folder>\Lib there's a folder called "encodings". If I rename 
it, Python fails. Does that folder exist? Does it contain a load of .py 
files? If not, there's something wrong...

Maybe your installer got corrupted somehow.

Uninstall it, check that all traces of that installation have gone, 
download the installer again, and try installing it again.