Install Python interpreters

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

By default, installing the Python development workload in Visual Studio 2017 and later also installs Python 3 (64-bit). You can optionally choose to install 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Python 2 and Python 3, along with Miniconda (Visual Studio 2019) or Anaconda 2/Anaconda 3 (Visual Studio 2017), as described in Installation.

You can also manually install any of the interpreters listed in the table below outside of the Visual Studio installer. For example, if you installed Anaconda 3 before installing Visual Studio, you don't need to install it again through the Visual Studio installer. You can also install an interpreter manually if, for example, a newer version of available that doesn't yet appear in the Visual Studio installer.

Note

Visual Studio supports Python version 2.7, as well as version 3.5 to 3.7. While it is possible to use Visual Studio to edit code written in other versions of Python, those versions are not officially supported and features such as IntelliSense and debugging might not work.

For Visual Studio 2015 and earlier, you must manually install one of the interpreters.

Note

Although Visual Studio offers to install the Anaconda distribution, your use of the distribution and additional packages from Anaconda Repository are bound by the Anaconda Terms of Service. These terms may require some organizations to pay Anaconda for a commercial license, or else configure the tools to access an alternate repository. See the Conda channels documentation for more information.

Visual Studio (all versions) automatically detects each installed Python interpreter and its environment by checking the registry according to PEP 514 - Python registration in the Windows registry. Python installations are typically found under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python (32-bit) and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Python (64-bit), then within nodes for the distribution such as PythonCore (CPython) and ContinuumAnalytics (Anaconda).

If Visual Studio does not detect an installed environment, see Manually identify an existing environment.

Visual Studio shows all known environments in the Python Environments window, and automatically detects updates to existing interpreters.

Interpreter Description
CPython The "native" and most commonly used interpreter, available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions (32-bit recommended). Includes the latest language features, maximum Python package compatibility, full debugging support, and interop with IPython. See also: Should I use Python 2 or Python 3?. Visual Studio 2015 and earlier don't support Python 3.6+ and can give errors like Unsupported python version 3.6. Use Python 3.5 or earlier instead.
IronPython A .NET implementation of Python, available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, providing C#/F#/Visual Basic interop, access to .NET APIs, standard Python debugging (but not C++ mixed-mode debugging), and mixed IronPython/C# debugging. IronPython, however, doesn't support virtual environments.
Anaconda An open data science platform powered by Python, and includes the latest version of CPython and most of the difficult-to-install packages. If you're unable to decide, we recommend using Anaconda.
PyPy A high-performance tracing JIT implementation of Python that's good for long-running programs and situations where you identify performance issues but cannot find other resolutions. Works with Visual Studio but with limited support for advanced debugging features.
Jython An implementation of Python on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Similar to IronPython, code running in Jython can interact with Java classes and libraries. However, many of the libraries intended for CPython may not be accessible. Works with Visual Studio but with limited support for advanced debugging features.

Developers that want to provide new forms of detection for Python environments, see PTVS Environment Detection (github.com).

Move an interpreter

If you move an existing interpreter to a new location using the file system, Visual Studio doesn't automatically detect the change.

  • If you originally specified the location of the interpreter through the Python Environments window, then edit its environment using the Configure tab in that window to identify the new location. See Manually identify an existing environment.

  • If you installed the interpreter using an installer program, then use the following steps to reinstall the interpreter in the new location:

    1. Restore the Python interpreter to its original location.
    2. Uninstall the interpreter using its installer, which clears the registry entries.
    3. Reinstall the interpreter at the new location.
    4. Restart Visual Studio, which should autodetect the new location in place of the old location.

Following this process ensures that the registry entries that identify the interpreter's location, which Visual Studio uses, are properly updated. Using an installer also handles any other side effects that may exist.

See also