Multiple Python installations of the same python version on the same machine

Question

I want to install new Python 2.7 on a 32-bit PC running Windows XP.

with CDO (this is an OCD with initials sorted alphabetically) I want to install it several times on the same computer (in different TARGETDIR).

how to do it? double-clicking on the installer or starting msiexec several times did not work for me

By the way, I noticed that installing windows python does not ask me if I want to add a Start menu item. I want my python installations not to appear in the start menu. How to do it?

well

Answer 1

If I understood correctly, you want several independent copies of Python 2.7 to work on Windows. I assume that you can only install the packages needed for each project, and not have different projects fighting for conflicting versions.

Try using virtualenv ( http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv ). You install Python once, then whenever you need a new copy, you run virtualenv.py and it effectively gives you a clean environment with an activate script ( activate.bat on Windows) that makes that environment current.

Having said all this, I used virtualenv only for Linux, so I don’t know how well it works on Windows, but it certainly claims to work on Windows, so let it know.

Edit: to run Python scripts on machines without having to worry about whether there is already an existing conventional solution, use py2exe ( http://www.py2exe.org/ ). This links your application and all libraries together with Python in a separate standalone file that can be run without any installation.

Answer 2

Based on one of your comments, it looks like you really don't need to install it, you just need this on your computer so your program can work. In this case, you can take the page from the Dropbox book and include the interpreter, DLL and standard library in one of your directories and just use it from there.