On my corporate windows 11 computer without elevated privileges, all .exe programs in the Scripts\ folder of the virtual environment but python.exe fails to run using Powershell 7.
Trying to launch pip after activating a venv gives the following error.
ResourceUnavailable: Program 'pip.exe' failed to run: An error occurred trying to start process 'C:\path\to\venv\Scripts\pip.exe' with working directory 'C:\path\to\working\directory'. Access is denied.At line:1 char:1
+ pip
+ ~~~~~.
python -m pip runs as intended. So I pip install-ed sphinx and typer, and both of them yield the same error message (replacing pip.exe with sphinx-build.exe and typer.exe).
Using the flag --system-site-packages when creating a new venv, or restarting the computer inconsistently brought pip back. Upgrading pip reintroduces the error as follows.
› pip --version
pip 25.2 from C:\path\to\venv\Lib\site-packages\pip (python 3.13)
› pip install --upgrade pip
Requirement already satisfied: pip in c:\path\to\venv\lib\site-packages (25.2)
Collecting pip
Using cached pip-25.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.7 kB)
Using cached pip-25.3-py3-none-any.whl (1.8 MB)
[notice] A new release of pip is available: 25.2 -> 25.3
[notice] To update, run: python.exe -m pip install --upgrade pip
ERROR: To modify pip, please run the following command:
C:\path\to\venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install --upgrade pip
› python -m pip install --upgrade pip
Requirement already satisfied: pip in c:\path\to\venv\lib\site-packages (25.2)
Collecting pip
Using cached pip-25.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.7 kB)
Using cached pip-25.3-py3-none-any.whl (1.8 MB)
Installing collected packages: pip
Attempting uninstall: pip
Found existing installation: pip 25.2
Uninstalling pip-25.2:
Successfully uninstalled pip-25.2
Successfully installed pip-25.3
› pip
ResourceUnavailable: Program 'pip.exe' failed to run: An error occurred trying to start process 'C:\path\to\venv\Scripts\pip.exe' with working directory 'C:\path\to\working directory'. Access is denied.At line:1 char:1
+ pip
+ ~~~.
The virtual environment activates properly and running $env:PATH -split ';' shows path\to\venv\Scripts as the first entry.
(Get-Command pip).path also shows the correct path.
Full access is granted to all executables in folder path\to\venv\Scripts.
venv created by Python 3.12, 3.13 and 3.14 installed with Python install manager 25.0 | Python.org, and python 3.13 installed with microsoft store all show this problem. This behavior seems to show regardless of working directory, tested with home, path\to\venv and path\to\some\project.
The fact that pip sometimes run and sometimes not is really strange. Any ideas on next steps to help poor souls bound to Windows because of work?