🔒 Python "Setup Failed" Help

[sharp hollow]

@wary jolt

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[fair leaf]

!paste Could you send the log file for this?

[sharp hollow]

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[wary jolt]

Do you need any specific part?

[fair leaf]

I'd need the complete log.

[sharp hollow]

There was an error uploading your paste.

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[wary jolt]

Is it good?

[fair leaf]

yep, that's fine

[drifting meadow]

You need to run the installation as a local administrator.

[fair leaf]

You can try running as admin, yeah.

[wary jolt]

I did it

[fair leaf]

There are two somewhat concerning things though: the first is that system restore points are disabled (the installer tries to make one but fails) and the second is that it fails when installing the core libraries which is odd.

[wary jolt]

You mean "Run as Administrator"?

[drifting meadow]

yers

yes

also I installed python from Microsoft store after facing this problem and it magically got installed without any error as it may have directly been installed. I don't know but try if it works for you too.

[wary jolt]

I did it multiple times.

[wary jolt]

The problem is new as the pip was not working despite a lot of attempts.

And now after tring to install Python again it fails too.

[fair leaf]

Just to clarify, are you installing anywhere else other than the default directory it chooses for you?

[wary jolt]

I actually prefer to install from the website to a particular directory, so there are some problems for me if I am to install from MS Store.

[wary jolt]

Yes. I have always installed in custom directories.

[fair leaf]

Was your previous installation on the boot drive (usually your C drive)?

[wary jolt]

No, I never install in the C drive.

Things were absolutely fine till a few days back.

Where is the problem then?

[fair leaf]

I'm not completely sure how Python deals with installs that aren't in the boot drive. It could be an issue with that.

The eror it's throwing at the end, 0x643, could mean a fatal issue (which could be anything) or it can also be a file in use error.

[wary jolt]

No files related to Python are running.

[tender sail]

Btw, what do you mean by that?

[tender sail]

"install Python again" - did you properly uninstall it first?

[wary jolt]

'pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

This is being shown in cmd.

[wary jolt]

I used the Python uninstaller and revo.

[fair leaf]

Each component creates a more detailed log. Can you locate the log at %LocalAppdata%\Temp\Python 3.13.5 (64-bit)_20250707205758_000_lib_JustForMe.log and send it?

[tender sail]

!dash-m-pip

[sharp hollow]

Install packages with `python -m pip`

When trying to install a package via pip, it's recommended to invoke pip as a module: python -m pip install your_package.

Why would we use python -m pip instead of pip?
Invoking pip as a module ensures you know which pip you're using. This is helpful if you have multiple Python versions. You always know which Python version you're installing packages to.

Note
The exact python command you invoke can vary. It may be python3 or py, ensure it's correct for your system.

[tender sail]

On windows you're supposed to run python with py, so you'll run pip with py -m pip

[wary jolt]

I am taking a look.

[wary jolt]

"py" is unrecognised.

[fair leaf]

Yeah, you don't have that anymore.

[tender sail]

Now it is, because you uninstalled python. I'm saying that when you had python, pip wasn't broken

[wary jolt]

But when I ran the following, the error was still there:

pip --version

[sharp hollow]

There was an error uploading your paste.

[wary jolt]

What do you suggest?

[fair leaf]

It fails very weirdly with a stack overflow.

[drifting meadow]

i would give up like reinstall OS because this is giving me a headache... good luck anyways

[fair leaf]

Here are two more relevant errors though:

• 1322 being "A portion of the folder path is invalid. It is either empty or exceeds the length allowed by the system."
• 1324 being "The folder path contains an invalid character. "

[wary jolt]

But neither was an issue in any previous installations.

During a couple other times, repairing the installation worked. This is the first time of this happening to the PC.

[drifting meadow]

Hi i'm glad to hear that it solved ur problem

please type !close

[fair leaf]

It is indeed very odd. Never seen it.

[drifting meadow]

NO

its actually

!solved

not !close

[wary jolt]

The information on Stack Overflow and Discord was scarce too.

[wary jolt]

What do you mean?

[fair leaf]

Going by 1322, it could be the "exceeds the length allowed" part.

[wary jolt]

I know when I need to close it bud.

[fair leaf]

Can you go to your terminal and check what the following returns?

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem /v LongPathsEnabled

[drifting meadow]

you said repair helped fix ur problem please type !solved

[wary jolt]

You have not read properly. I said it did before under different circumstances.

[wary jolt]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
LongPathsEnabled REG_DWORD 0x0

[fair leaf]

There we go. Now run:

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem /v LongPathsEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0x1 /f

to enable that setting then run the installer again.

[wary jolt]

ERROR: Access is denied.

[fair leaf]

Run your terminal as admin then try again.

[wary jolt]

The setting modification was successful but not the Python installation.

@fair leaf, any reason why it might be failing repeatedly?

[fair leaf]

The other is the "invalid path" error but I'm unable to see why it would be invalid.

[fair leaf]

Was it the same error?

[wary jolt]

Yes.

[fair leaf]

Maybe try restarting the system. The registry setting might only apply then.

[wary jolt]

Did that too, the problem is very peculiar as nothing changed despite applying different methods.

I am restarting for one last time.

[wary jolt]

Should I use admin both the privileges and run as administator during the installation?

[fair leaf]

Yep.

[wary jolt]

What are the advantages of enabling the admin priviledges?

[wary jolt]

That did not work.

[fair leaf]

It's mainly to avoid permissions issues that you might have if you were installing as a user.

[fair leaf]

also same error I'm guessing?

[wary jolt]

Indeed.

Why could the problem occur all of a sudden?

Was uninstalling all of the python files from the C drive using revo installer a red flag?

[fair leaf]

I'll just chalk it up to "Windows being Windows".

It's also possible that Revo might have messed something up.

Can you go back to Revo and check that it doesn't list Python anymore?

[wary jolt]

Any way to fix it?

[wary jolt]

You mean the Python executible and installer?

[wary jolt]

Now that you have said it, I think this might be at the root of the cause. I never uninstalled all of the Python files from all the drives using Revo Uninstaller.

Do you have any suggestions for that?

[fair leaf]

I want to check whether it still thinks it's installed.

[wary jolt]

No, Revo Uninstaller detects nothing related to Python.

Just curious, is there any file related to Python that comes preloaded with Windows before the first Python installation?

[fair leaf]

Not really, nope.

I've seen installs fail but not to this extent so I'm pretty much left to trial and error.

Can you send the new log file? I want to check if something changed.

[wary jolt]

I am pretty new to programming too, so I am left with no other choices.

[proper prism]

Could it be the weird S:/ install path

[fair leaf]

I suspect it's that, but they mention they had no issues with it earlier.

[proper prism]

You should try on C:/:pithink:

[wary jolt]

It never had been to begin with.

[wary jolt]

I don't have a lot of storage left there.

[fair leaf]

Looks like a bunch of the same unfortunately.

[proper prism]

At least try if it work
If you haven't install any package, you shouldn't use much space, and see if it work/not, you can still decide to uninstall it

[wary jolt]

What do we do now?

[wary jolt]

Is that the only option left?

[proper prism]

I mean, for troubleshoot, it is the most sensible step to do

[wary jolt]

You can assume that this is my first Python installation as I have 0 Python files remaining in my hard drive.

[fair leaf]

Probably, again, I'm not sure how Python handles installs in other places.

[wary jolt]

So you are telling me to install Python in the default installation directory by the installer?

[fair leaf]

Yeah

[wary jolt]

Does it take like 0.5 GB of the installation space?

[fair leaf]

A Python install as is shouldn't take more than 200-ish MB.

[wary jolt]

Nevermind, that didn't work either.

This is a huge problem in that case.

Some people recommended installing Python 2 if such problem occurs.

[proper prism]

Fallback: use uv to install python

[proper prism]

Please don't do that, they are not supported at all now

[wary jolt]

uv?

[wary jolt]

Ik

[proper prism]

They are a package manager that allows you to install standalone python

[fair leaf]

Don't do Python 2 -- you shouldn't use it anymore. But it's possible that installing another version (like Python 3.12) could work.

[wary jolt]

Wouldn't the problem technically be the same?

[proper prism]

We don't know exactly the problem

So we cannot tell

[fair leaf]

Possibly, possibly not.

Though I suspect "possibly" because this looks like permissions but you can try.

[proper prism]

If you want to try uv:
https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/

[wary jolt]

Do I need to install anything manually before the Python installation, like pip?

[wary jolt]

I am going for the previous version first.

[proper prism]

No, pip is installed by python
-# * - unless you use uv python install, then yes you need to first install uv

[tender sail]

(Because here you run pip, not py -m pip...)

[proper prism]

And also python still doesn't exist

[wary jolt]

That was before the deletion.

[proper prism]

Oh well

[wary jolt]

Installing the previous version first, should I go for some other 3.13 or previous versions?

[proper prism]

Previous version

Other 3.13.x is still consider as 3.13

[wary jolt]

Another question, what is "WIndows embedded package" in Python installation?

[proper prism]

You shouldn't use that one

[wary jolt]

What does that do?

[proper prism]

It basically have a zip file contain python

But as far as I remember it have some limitations

Which I don't exactly remember

[fair leaf]

It's a zipped version of Python that's mainly useful for when you want to embed Python in another application. The limitations with it though are that it doesn't package things like Tkinter and it also doesn't come with pip by default.

[wary jolt]

Okay.

Can I rename a Python file name after the files have been installed in it?

[tender sail]

Not in PATH,
nor recognised by py launcher.
And for some reason doesn't add cwd to PATH when running a file, so your imports WILL be broken (we once encountered it in #1035199133436354600)
That's what I can list without looking anything up

[tender sail]

A Python file? As in files just installed? Or your own code file with python code?

[wary jolt]

I mean the folder where the Python files are installed by the installer file.

[tender sail]

Never modify installed stuff

[wary jolt]

Update: Python 3.12 is installed.

[tender sail]

That's how you break stuff. Only use installer to modify/repair ANY program. Because installing isn't just unpacking random files in random place, it adds changes to the system registry as well

[wary jolt]

You mean the file directory name in the code in a nutshell?

But the problem with Python 3.13 still persists despite 3.12 working well.

What is this problem for?

And should Python be installed for all users or just the current one?

[fair leaf]

Think either should work, though you can try first with all users.

[wary jolt]

Neither worked.

What is the possible problem with 3.13 but not 3.12?

[fair leaf]

I'm still not sure though again we know it's probably due to Revo or as a result of modifying the install improperly.

[wary jolt]

Do you know how to redo the state that Python was in before the Revo uninstallation?

[fair leaf]

This is where perhaps the system restore point that the uninstaller makes might have helped but that seems to be disabled for some reason.

[wary jolt]

The system restore point was enable during the process.

[fair leaf]

Alright, though the log sent says it's disabled.

[wary jolt]

How can I fix that? Python 3.13 is still the latest version in line.

[fair leaf]

It has a fair bit of steps to it. You can go to Settings > System > About then to Advanced System Settings and after that to System Protection. That should help in checking if it's actually enabled.

[wary jolt]

What should I particularly look for there?

[fair leaf]

Just check if going to that tab or trying to create a restore point doesn't throw any sort of errors.

[wary jolt]

All of the protections are disabled and I am unable to click on System Restore.

[fair leaf]

You can follow this guide to reenable it, though I presume it's because of storage that it's not letting you.

Anyways, if you do want Python 3.13, this is pretty much a last resort but you can try sending the output that this tool sends: pywintrbl. It's a tool I wrote a while ago to debug things like this. Perhaps it's helpful here.

But otherwise you can either use 3.12 since that installed successfully or try to install 3.13 through uv as someone else suggested.

Also, maybe installing 3.13.4 might work, though since it's in the same line as 3.13, it's unlikely.

[wary jolt]

What will the tool do?

[fair leaf]

It simply finds the Python installations on your system and any possible leftovers and lists them out.

[wary jolt]

Will just installing the .exe work?

[fair leaf]

Sure.

[wary jolt]

There are quite a lot of files related to 3.13.3 and 3.13.5.

[fair leaf]

The tool outputs an HTML file. Can you send that?

[proper prism]

That's not the file

[wary jolt]

The bot gives error.

[fair leaf]

forgot that the server won't let you send those files, so please send it through the paste.
https://paste.pythondiscord.com/

!paste -- here are the steps for it

[sharp hollow]

Pasting large amounts of code

If your code is too long to fit in a codeblock in Discord, you can paste your code here:
https://paste.pythondiscord.com/

After pasting your code, save it by clicking the Paste! button in the bottom left, or by pressing CTRL + S. After doing that, you will be navigated to the new paste's page. Copy the URL and post it here so others can see it.

[proper prism]

You go to the website

You upload the file on the website
You paste
You copy the link
You paste the link here

[wary jolt]

Which website are you talking about?

[fair leaf]

Also doing pywintrbl > log.txt and sending that should work. The output should be the same.

[proper prism]

The website from the bot / mentioned by Tekgar

[wary jolt]

Is this good?

[fair leaf]

Yep, that's fine. As you mentioned, there's 3.13 entries listed and some for 3.15.

The installer did manage to register itself so it partially installed something.

[wary jolt]

Should I manually uninstall all of them?

@proper prism, do you have anything to say?

[proper prism]

Tekgar cover everything I would say and probably know more than me for this

[wary jolt]

Okay.

[fair leaf]

You'd need to get rid of the 3.13 ones.

If Revo doesn't list them, then perhaps BCUninstaller does: https://www.bcuninstaller.com/.

[wary jolt]

Can I not manually delete each of them?

[proper prism]

It's not recommended to touch registry yourself

Or delete random file

[wary jolt]

So how do I make Revo list all of the remaining files?

[fair leaf]

I could list out how to remove them but I want to try BC first since that's easier.

[wary jolt]

If I am correct, you just mean getting the list of all the remaining Python files.

Am I wrong?

[fair leaf]

I just want to check if BCUninstaller lists out the applications the tool found.

Otherwise we'd need to do it manually.

[wary jolt]

I have a program called WizFile. It lists all the files and folders in the entire OS with advanced search features.

Would that help?

I am going AFK for 15 minutes.

[fair leaf]

It might help if we have to delete it manually.

[fair leaf]

For now just check with BC and remove it from there if they appear.

[wary jolt]

What do you want to do with BCUninstaller? Can you tell me the process?

[fair leaf]

I just want to know whether it lists the installations found by the tool and, if they are, you can try uninstalling them with BC.

[wary jolt]

So basically you want me to delete the 3.14.3 files?

[fair leaf]

Yes, using BCUninstaller if possible.

[wary jolt]

I found out that they are different Python files, mainly of VS Code.

They are not separately installed but bundled with VS Code.

[fair leaf]

Let's ignore WizFile for now. Just check if BC lists them.

For example, there's "Python 3.13.3 Standard Library (64-bit)", check if BCUninstaller lists that or something similar.

[wary jolt]

I am checking it.

[wary jolt]

Yes, it successfully lists the related Python files.

What's next?

You there @fair leaf?

[wary jolt]

There are just some leftover files remaining.

[fair leaf]

Just uninstall them as you did with Revo.

If the uninstall was successful, then you can try installing 3.13 again.

[wary jolt]

Well, I removed all of the 3.13 files and it worked at last.

Thanks a lot for the help.

Others quitted, but you remained and helped, so thanks for that.

Should I close it now?

[fair leaf]

If you don't have any other questions, then feel free to close it.

[wary jolt]

I have one last query.

How long have you been programming for?

What advice would you give me to troubleshoot the problems better next time? What should I learn and how can I be better at fixing the problems?

[proper prism]

It mostly require specific knowledge

[fair leaf]

I've been at this for the past 8 years or so. With Python probably the last 5.

[wary jolt]

Such as?

[proper prism]

Knowing what registry it edit etc.

Stuff that you won't know if you normally using Python

Which I don't have for example, so I just stay silent

[wary jolt]

I also mean Computer Science in general.

[fair leaf]

For some parts it comes down to trial and error. Also just experience that you acquire over the years probably helps.

As you saw here, it was mostly a matter of reading logs, searching up errors, and trying different routes to see if they work.

[wary jolt]

What CS concepts help you troubleshoot the problems?

[proper prism]

Most likely he read the source code of CPython for some part for this

[fair leaf]

But since I've seen this issue happen a few times in the past, I do have a more outlined series of steps that I can follow (like some of what we did here).

(this isn't really that much of a Python issue, it mostly comes down to how uninstallers in general work, though there are parts that are related)

[wary jolt]

I shall keep that in mind.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

!close

[sharp hollow]

Python help channel closed with !close

This help channel has been closed. Feel free to create a new post in #1035199133436354600. To maximize your chances of getting a response, check out this guide on asking good questions.