Who added Python to the latest Windows update?

A few days ago, the Windows team announced the May update 2019 for Windows 10 . In this post, we take a look at what we, the Python team, have done to make installing Python on Windows easier. In particular, let's talk about the Microsoft Store and about adding the default command “python.exe” to facilitate searching (in the collaboration with Windows). You may have heard about this in the Python Bytes podcast, on PyCon US, or on Twitter .

As software moves from the PC to the cloud, the browser and the Internet of Things development workflows change. Although Visual Studio remains an excellent starting point for any workload in Windows, many developers now prefer to use tools individually and on demand.

For other operating systems, the package manager supported by the platform is the traditional place to search for individual tools that have been configured, tested and tested for the system. On Windows, we explore ways to provide similar experience to developers, without affecting non-developer users, and without disrupting the ability of publishers to manage their releases. Windows Subsystem for Linux is one approach that offers developers consistency between their build and deployment environments. But there are other developer tools that also matter.

One such tool is Python. Microsoft has been working with the Python community for more than twelve years and is currently directly interacting with the four key contributors to the language and the main runtime environment. The development of Python is incredible, because it is used by data analysts, web developers, system administrators and students, and at least half of their tasks can already be performed on Windows . But for now, Python developers on Windows face more questions than other platforms.

Installing Python on Windows

For years, it has been widely known that Windows is the only major operating system in which there is no built-in Python interpreter. For many users who will never need it, it helps to reduce the size and increase the security of the operating system. But for those of us who need it, the lack of Python is acutely felt.

As soon as you find that you need to get Python, you will quickly encounter many choices. Will you download the installer from python.org? Or perhaps a distribution like Anaconda? The Visual Studio installer is also an option. And what version is needed? How do you get access after installation? You will find more answers than you need, and depending on your situation, any of them may be correct.

We spent the time trying to figure out why someone discovers the error mentioned above and what kind of help he needs. If you're already a Python expert with complex needs, you probably know how to install and use it. It is much more likely that someone will encounter this problem the first time they try to use Python. Many of the teachers we spoke with confirmed this hypothesis — students face this much more often than experienced developers.

And we made everything easier.

First, we helped the community release Python from the Microsoft Store. This version of Python is fully prepared by the community, easy to install on Windows 10, and automatically makes standard python , pip and idle commands available (as are their equivalents in python3 and python3.7 , for all commands, like on Linux).

Finally, with the May update of Windows 2019, we complete the picture. Although Python continues to be completely independent of the operating system, each Windows installation will include python and python3 commands that lead you directly to the Python page . We believe that the Microsoft Store is ideal for users who are starting to work with Python, and given our experience with it and participation in the Python community, we are happy to support it as the default choice.

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We hope everyone will be as happy as Scott Hanselman when he discovered this . Over time, we plan to expand similar integration with other tools for developers and solve problems with getting started. We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions, so feel free to leave comments here or use the Windows Feedback application.