Hello,
I ran across a frustrating problem in the Python installer for Windows.
I have been using Python 2.7 on a Windows 10 (x64) PC to run scripts for some applications, but those scripts were updated and now called for Python 3. So, earlier today, I installed Python 3.9.2 (64-bit installer) from the Downloads page, keeping Python 2.7 just in case. Suddenly, all of my scripts were failing to run. I was getting bizarre errors like
"Error: "C:\Windows\system32\L": no such file or folder"
in the application’s log.
I checked everything I could think of. The paths for Python 3.9 and Python 2.7 were set correctly in my system environment variables (with Python 3.9’s first). I made sure Pywin32 was installed (newest version from its website). I changed settings within the app that was trying to call the scripts. All to no avail.
Finally, after much Googling and poking around, I stumbled across the cause.
When I installed Python 3.9.2, I had selected the option “Install for all users”. This created a set of keys in the Windows Registry for file associations, which would execute “C:\Windows\py.exe” for the various Python file types (.py, .pyc, etc.). But, the command it was using to actually execute Python was put in as:
"C:\Windows\py.exe" "%L" %*
when it SHOULD have been
"C:\Windows\py.exe" "%1" %*
Note, the “L” when it should have been “1”. “%1” is the standard Windows method of specifying the first argument in the command line.
So, instead of passing the argument (e.g. the name of the script) to Python, Windows was instead expanding “%L” into “C:\Windows\system32\L” and passing that to Python, causing every script called by my application to fail! (Why does it use “C:\Windows\system32” as the folder name? Who knows…)
All of this means that the Python installer set up the file associations wrong when writing to the Windows Registry. Whomever created the installer made a typo and wrote “%L” instead of “%1”.
In order to fix the problem, I had to open Regedit.exe, go to “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.File\shell\open\command” and edit the “(Default)” value, replacing “%L” with “%1”. I also had to do the same with the other Python-related keys (Python.ArchiveFile, Python.CompiledFile, etc.) which had a “shell\open\command” subkey anywhere in their tree.
After that, the scripts started running as expected.
Mind you, I think this may only happen specifically when the “Install for all users” option is selected in the installer. But I don’t know for sure, and I’m not about to test the alternative at this point!
aimhere