How to use Python's “easy_install” on Windows … it's not so easy

Question

After installing Python 2.7 on Windows XP, then manually setting the %PATH% to python.exe (why won\'t the python installer do this?), then installi

Answer 1

If you are using windows 7 64-bit version, then the solution is found here: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools

namely, you need to download a python script, run it, and then easy_install will work normally from commandline.

P.S. I agree with the original poster saying that this should work out of the box.

Answer 2

For one thing, it says you already have that module installed. If you need to upgrade it, you should do something like this:

easy_install -U packageName

Of course, easy_install doesn't work very well if the package has some C headers that need to be compiled and you don't have the right version of Visual Studio installed. You might try using pip or distribute instead of easy_install and see if they work better.

Answer 3

If you are using Anaconda's Python distribution,

you can install it through pip

pip install setuptools

and then execute it as a module

python -m easy_install

Answer 4

One problem is that easy_install is set up to download and install .egg files or source distributions (contained within .tgz, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, or .zip files). It doesn't know how to deal with the PyWin32 extensions because they are put within a separate installer executable. You will need to download the appropriate PyWin32 installer file (for Python 2.7) and run it yourself. When you run easy_install again (provided you have it installed right, like in Sergio's instructions), you should see that your winpexpect package has been installed correctly.

Since it's Windows and open source we are talking about, it can often be a messy combination of install methods to get things working properly. However, easy_install is still better than hand-editing configuration files, for sure.

Answer 5

I also agree with the OP that all these things should come with Python already set. I guess we will have to deal with it until that day comes. Here is a solution that actually worked for me :

installing easy_install faster and easier

I hope it helps you or anyone with the same problem!

Answer 6

Copy the below script "ez_setup.py" from the below URL

https://bootstrap.pypa.io/ez_setup.py

And copy it into your Python location

C:\Python27>

Run the command

C:\Python27? python ez_setup.py

This will install the easy_install under Scripts directory

C:\Python27\Scripts

Run easy install from the Scripts directory >

C:\Python27\Scripts> easy_install