Python for Absolute Beginners Transcripts
Chapter: Course setup and requirements
Lecture: Checking for Python on Windows
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0:00
Let's see how to verify that we have Python and the right version of Python on Windows. We went to the terminal on macOS or on Linux
0:10
and over here we're going to go to the Command Prompt. And again, if you don't have it here you can just type startcmd and it's going to run like that.
0:18
This one has slightly different settings than that one. That's a good question, why? I honestly have no idea why.
0:24
So here we are, you'll see some kind of prompt like this with your username and you can type things like Python -V.
0:31
And over here, we have a newer version 3.8, how cool is that? We could also try a Python3. And look at this. What the heck just happened there?
0:39
Why did we not see anything? Well, it turns out, in the latest version or many of the recent versions of Windows 10
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they've installed these little shims that if you try to run Python and it's not there it will suggest that you install it off the Windows 10 Store.
0:56
And that's a good way to get it. You should consider that for sure. But what's weird is, it doesn't say you don't have Python installed
1:01
you should install it, or something when you do this. If I just type Python3 notice, it opens up the Windows Store, and that's cool
1:10
and I can just click install. Oddly, this is 3.7 when 3.8 is out, but whatever. 3.7 is more than good enough
1:15
you can install this and that would be great. If you type Python or Python3 -V, like this and you get no output, not like this, but like this
1:25
that means is just maybe kind of going to show you the Windows Store if you don't give it any options.
1:30
It should give you something here, even when you do this but it doesn't. So, it can be really tricky like I just didn't get anything, right?
1:36
So, if you see something like this be sure to run it like that. Now, we have Python installed here. And we can actually ask where on macOS, which
1:45
here we can ask where Python. And it'll show you over in Python 3.8 this is apparently first in the path. So that's the one that's going to run.
1:54
But we also have 3.7. We also have the Windows app installed here. And this is just the shim, the thing I talked about that launches the Windows Store.
2:02
But have the same question for Python 3 you can see it's over here and this other stuff you can ignore.
2:07
This one is some setup on but it's not first in the path so the Windows Store one is going to run first
2:13
and then it will replace itself with real Python if you choose to install it. Whew, does that seem a little bit complicated?
2:19
A little bit, but it's not too bad. The thing is, you do this once, and you get it all set up and you're good to go.
2:24
So, just make sure that you have a command you can type that's either Python or Python 3 and you give it the -V, you get 3.6 or above.
2:32
If you want to install the Windows Store version that's totally fine. If you do, the benefit is that you also have a Python3 command, unless you saw
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the Windows Store version. Windows only has Python, not Python3. It just happens to be it looks through the path
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and grabs the first one, which hopefully is Python 3 rather than two. Okay, so make sure that you've got it set up
2:52
so you can run this and get something along those lines on Windows, and then you'll be ready to take this course.