Install Python on Windows Without Admin Access

Published: 2020-07-13 • Last updated: 2021-05-03

Sometimes you need to install developer tools on a Windows machine, but you don’t have Admin access. How to get around this, you say? Well, instead of running an installer, you download the binaries you need then add them to your PATH.

This will install python version 3.9.2

Install

1. Get familiar with Windows Environment Variables in Command Prompt

2. Download a zip of the 64-bit Windows binary https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.2/python-3.9.2-embed-amd64.zip

3. Create folder %USERPROFILE%\bin\python, then extract the zip contents into this folder

4. Open Command Prompt and set environment variables for your account

    setx PYTHON_HOME "%USERPROFILE%\bin\python\python-3.9.2-embed-amd64"
    setx PATH "%PYTHON_HOME%;%PATH%"
   

5. Restart Command Prompt

6. Confirm installation

    python --version
   

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