Configure Python on Windows

All right, I have a Windows machine. It’s a PITA, but it’s here. And for some reason I started doing some Python testing on it. So this is how I managed to do it:

Preparation:

  • Install python with choco (choco install -y python)
  • Run PowerShell as Administrator
    • Execute Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted (we’ll see why in a very short time)

Now to code it’s pretty similar to *NIX:

  • Create your code folder
  • Set up a python venv (python -m venv .env)
  • In VS Code, choose this interpreter

So why the PowerShell stuff? Cause to activate the environment VS Code needs to execute a .ps1 script. Which it can’t, cause “executing scripts is disabled on this machine”, which seems to be the default setting.

All in all, surprisingly straightforward. And I just noticed even the *NIX keyboard shortcuts (CTRL-A, CTRL-K, for example) work in the terminal window now. Crazy.