[Updated 2017-04-15] These steps might not be required in latest Python distributions which are already shipped with pip .

I enjoy studying other people’s development environments. They give me plenty of insights into their aesthetic choices and their productivity shortcuts. But I have seen a lot of horrible environments cobbled together by flaky batch files that are one update away from blowing up, often leaving no option but to reinstall everything from scratch. Unfortunately, they have all been Windows environments.

Recently, I tried to install Python and pip on a Windows laptop. Though I have installed Python on Windows XP and Windows Servers for several years till 2010; there have been a lot of changes both in the Windows world such as Powershell and the Python world. So there is a lot of confusing information out there for the Python beginner. And then there is Python 3. Sigh!

Suffice to say I wanted to share what I learnt in a video aimed at the Python beginner or anyone struggling to install Python on Windows. The video and the high-level transcript follows:

What is covered?

Installing Python 2 or Python 3 on Windows 7

Installing pip from PowerShell

Setting up a virtualenv

Installing via pip

How to install Python / Pip on Windows 7 (or 8)