Python for Windows 95/98 and NT (Intel)

The binaries mentioned in this section run on any Intel Win32 platform, i.e., Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. (For Alpha NT, see www.alphant.com in the Programming category. For Windows CE, see Mark Hammond's CE web pages.)

Start by downloading and installing this (see also troubleshooting help):

py152.exe (5 Mb): core interpreter and library, version 1.5.2 final.
(Alternatively, the previous release: pyth151.exe (2.3 Mb): core interpreter and library, version 1.5.1.)

Then choose any or all of the following items, depending on what you want to do.

win32all.exe build 125 (3MB): Win32 extensions, COM extensions, PythonWin IDE. See the win32all page for details; or go directly to Mark Hammond's starship home page, which may have more recent beta releases of this package.
Tcl and Tk: the latest distributions. Not part of Python, but needed by programs that use the graphics user interface module, Tkinter. Note: You do not need to download Tcl/Tk separately if you are using the Python 1.5.2 installer above. A compatible recent version of Tcl/Tk is packaged with the Python 1.5.2 installer.
Warning for Windows Users: Tkinter currently doesn't work with PythonWin. To run a Python program that uses Tkinter on Windows, use the python.exe or pythonw.exe executables that come with the core Python distribution.
NumPy: Numerical Python Extensions. This is the latest official distribution by LLNL. It includes the current release of Numerical Python as a self-installing executable, as well as all the other LLNL-distributed Python packages.
Python Imaging Library 1.0 (PIL 1.0)

You can also watch the source for Pythonwin change in the Pythonwin CVS tree.

Trouble downloading or installing?

If you're connected to a web mirror site, some of the download links may not work. You can try to connect to the master site, www.python.org, or find an ftp mirror in the list of mirror sites. The Windows files are all in the win32 subdirectory. (XXX Should fix this by collecting all the download files in one place.)

If you're using a manual ftp client, be sure to download in binary mode, otherwise you will end up with a broken installer. (Web browsers take care of this automatically.)

Once you have downloaded an installer, you must run it as a program. To do this, double click on its icon. The installer will guide you through the installation process.

You can verify that the interpreter works by double-clicking on its icon. A DOS style console window should pop up with a copyright notice and a ">>>" prompt. You can now run Python statements, e.g.

>>> 12*12
144
>>> import string
>>> string.split("hello world")
['hello', 'world']
>>>

Type Control-Z or click the window's close button to exit.

Important: if the "import string" statement above doesn't work, you are in trouble. Most likely, the registry hasn't been set up correctly. The cause of this problem is probably that you messed with the installation after running the installer. Try uninstalling and reinstalling.

Reportedly, you can't use Python 1.4 and Python 1.5 simultaneously on the same system -- once you install Python 1.5, Python 1.4 is broken. This is because they require incompatible versions of msvcrt42.dll. You could try uninstalling both Python 1.5 and Python 1.4, and reinstalling Python 1.4.