I was having problems with Pycharm because I was trying to reference to py files from different directories. So I uninstalled python 3.11.5 and then reinstalled python 3.11.5. For whatever reason it did not install python3.exe, python3.11.exe or python3.11.5.exe. I’ve tried everything I can think of and no success.
Well, on my Windows PC, with a working Python 3.11.5, I have only python.exe and pythonw.exe, plus python311.dll and python3.dll, and not those other python*.exe.
The installer(s) available from Python.org do not create python3.11.exe or python3.exe. My knowledge beyond that is fuzzy, but I think the Windows Store version may do so, and I can’t speak for other sources (Anaconda, etc.) at all.
You can copy python.exe to python3.11.exe yourself if you like; python.exe is really just the minimum needed to find and load python311.dll, and it doesn’t mind what it’s called (though I would advise against moving python.exe to python3.11.exe).
You may also be interested in the py.exe launcher, which allows you to pick the Python to run with an argument, like py -3.11.
I just had the PC reimaged. Drastic, but I need python working. Thanks for your feedback.