Installing Python on Windows

Windows

The following are the steps to be performed for Windows platform:

1. For Windows you need to visit the official Python website, and then head to the Downloads page by clicking the link on the left. For Windows you should choose one of the MSI installers depending on whether you're running on a 32- or 64-bit platform.
2. Download and run the installer.
3. In the installer, decide whether you only want to install Python for yourself, or for all users of your machine.
4. Choose a location for the Python distribution. The default will be in
   C:\Python35 in the root of the C: drive. We don't recommended installing
   Python into Program Files because the virtualized file store used to
   isolate applications from each other in Windows Vista and later can interfere
   with easily installing third-party Python packages.
5. On the Customize Python page of the wizard we recommend keeping the
   defaults, which use less than 40 MB of space.
6. In addition to installing the Python runtime and standard library, the installer will register various file types, such as *.py files, with the Python interpreter.
7. Once Python has been installed, you'll need to add Python to your system PATH environment variable. To do this, from the Control Panel choose System and Security, then System. Another way to get here easily is to hold down your Windows key and press the Break key on your keyboard. Using the task pane on the left choose Advanced System Settings to open the Advanced tab of the System Properties dialog. Click Environment variables to open the child dialog.
8. If you have Administrator privileges you should be able to add the paths
   C:\Python35 and C:\Python35\Scripts to the semicolon separated list of
   entries associated with the PATH system variable. If not, you should be
   able to create, or append to, a PATH variable specific to your user
   containing the same value.
9. Now open a new console window — either Powershell or cmd will work fine
   — and verify that you can run python from the command line:

> python
Python 3.5.0 (v3.5.0:374f501f4567, Sep 13 2015, 02:27:37) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Welcome to Python!

The triple arrow prompt shows you that Python is waiting for your input.

At this point you might want to skip forward whilst we show how to install Python on Mac and Linux.