Persistent Error: Python was not found

[Jonathan Owah]

Thank you so much for your assistance .

The fault was actually mine: I was running a command
with python3, instead of just python.
python3 works for Mac, but not Windows.

I'm fairly new to Python so I was just following along a
tutorial, and I didn't take note of the fact that the command
didn't work because the tutorial was done on a MacBook,
while I'm using a Windows device.

Thanks for your help,
Regards

On Mon, Aug 15, 2022 at 8:14 AM Eryk Sun <eryksun at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 8/13/22, Jonathan Owah <owahjonathan at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I've been trying to configure my laptop to run python scripts.
> > This is the error I keep getting:
> > Python was not found; run without arguments to install from the Microsoft
> > Store, or disable this shortcut from Settings > Manage App Execution
> > Aliases.
>
> If you keep seeing this message, then the shell is finding and running
> Microsoft's default "python.exe" redirector app execution alias that's
> located in "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\WindowsApps". By default, this
> directory is set at the beginning of the user "Path" value in the
> registry and thus takes precedence (but not over the system "Path").
> Confirm this by running `where.exe python`.
>
> An app execution alias is a special type of filesystem symbolic link
> to a store app's executable. These aliases are created in a user's
> "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\WindowsApps" directory. Store apps
> themselves are usually installed in "%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps",
> which is a system managed directory that even administrators can't
> easily modify (and shouldn't modify). Each user on a system has their
> own set of installed store apps, even though the apps are installed
> only once at the system level.
>
> By default, Windows creates "python.exe" and "python3.exe" aliases for
> the "App Installer" PythonRedirector app. In the alias manager, these
> two will be clearly listed as aliases for "App Installer". If you run
> this redirector app with one or more command-line arguments, it will
> print the above quoted message to the console. If the redirector app
> is run without arguments, it will open the Microsoft Store to install
> the latest version of the Python store app distribution. Currently
> that means Python 3.10.
>
> In my experience, the app execution alias manager component of Windows
> is unreliable. A disabled alias might still exist in
> "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\WindowsApps", or an old alias might be left
> in place when an app is installed.  Once the real Python store app is
> installed, go back into the alias manager and toggle the "python.exe"
> and "python3.exe" aliases off and back on. If that doesn't resolve the
> problem, manually delete the "python.exe" and "python3.exe" aliases
> from "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\WindowsApps". Then toggle them off and
> on again in the alias manager. Hopefully they'll be created to
> correctly alias the real Python app instead of the "App Installer"
> redirector.
>