Python development environment on Windows

Download Python msi installer from here. It is recommended to run the installer with administrator privileges. Point your installation directory to program files:

C:\Program Files\Python26

Create a system variable PYTHON_HOME and point it to the python installation directory. Append the following to PATH system variable:

;%PYTHON_HOME%;%PYTHON_HOME%\Scripts

Restart your computer so the environment changes take place.

Setuptools and easy_install

Setuptools available here. Download exe version and launch it. Once installer completes you will have easy_install available in %PYTHON_HOME%\Scripts directory.

MinGW

The easy_install needs C++ compiler in order to compile the C extensions that likely be distributed as source along with the python source. MinGW - is a native Windows port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). You can download it from here. You need to select two options during install:

• g++ compiler
• MinGW Make

Point your installation directory to program files:

C:\Program Files\MinGW

Add the following to %PYTHON_HOME%\Lib\distutils\distutils.cfg file:

[build]
compiler=mingw32

Virtualenv

Virtual python environment builder can be installed this way:

easy_install virtualenv

Once you are done you can create isolated environment:

virtualenv --no-site-packages devenv

Please note that you must to run python, easy_install from your environment Scripts directory. You must manually copy %PYTHON_HOME%\Lib\distutils\distutils.cfg file to your environment e.g. devenv\Lib\destutils in order to be able compile C extension in your isolated environment.