Easy_install.exe Permission denied in Windows 8

Question

Running a command prompt as an administrator, which I am trying to run:

easy_install -U setuptools 

It returns the following:

 Searching for setuptools Reading https://pypi.python.org/simple/setuptools/ Reading http://peak.telecommunity.com/snapshots/ Reading https://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools Best match: setuptools 0.8 Processing setuptools-0.8-py2.7.egg setuptools 0.8 is already the active version in easy-install.pth Installing easy_install-script.py script to C:\Python27\Scripts Installing easy_install.exe script to C:\Python27\Scripts error: C:\Python27\Scripts\easy_install.exe: Permission denied 

I spent the last few hours trying to find the Internet for possible solutions. I tried messing around with the UAC settings and set them to Never Notify. However, I still get this permission rejecting the error.

Answer 1

You can read the solution here.

Run the installation.
After the error, copy easy_install.exe and .py to temp dir (i.e. C: \ temp).
Install again.

On windows, the easy_install binary is used during installation, so it cannot overwrite itself. (Easy_install itself is part of setuptools that you are trying to install with yourself;)

Answer 2

Another way would be to use another python package manager: Pip.

 easy_install pip pip install --upgrade setuptools 

This concerns the “in use” problem, without having to move files.