Cannot make Virtual Envoirment

Question

I have been following all the steps VSC's tutorial ia giving me but i keep running into this error

py : The term 'py' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling 
of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1
+ py -3 -m venv .venv
+ ~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (py:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

.venv\scripts\activate : File C:\Users\natha\.venv\scripts\Activate.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled 
on this system. For more information, see about_Execution_Policies at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.
At line:2 char:1
+ .venv\scripts\activate
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : SecurityError: (:) [], PSSecurityException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess

This is the command i am using on windows 11

py -3 -m venv .venv
.venv\scripts\activate

I do not know what's going on because I've been following the tutorial on vs code

Are you sure you prefer to spell the command `py` rather than `python` ? (You chose not to offer a link, so I've not read the tutorial.) https://stackoverflow.com/help/minimal-reproducible-example — J_H, Sep 22 '22 at 00:16

kyrlon · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-22T00:32:39.640

Take a look at this post. With windows, running py or python in a terminal (command prompt, PowerShell, git bash) should work in making a virtual environment. From your post, you are attempting to run this virtual environment in PowerShell. You would need to allow execution of PowerShell scripts (by example mentioned here). In a nutshell, open PowerShell as an Administrator, and run the command set-executionpolicy remotesigned or run set-executionpolicy unrestricted (mentioned here. Now you should be able to make a new virtual environment as so:

PS C:\Users\kyrlon\Desktop> py -m venv env1
PS C:\Users\kyrlon\Desktop> .\env1\Scripts\activate
(env1) PS C:\Users\kyrlon\Desktop> deactivate env1
PS C:\Users\klongwood3\Desktop> py -m venv env1

OR

PS C:\Users\kyrlon\Desktop> python -m venv env1
PS C:\Users\kyrlon\Desktop> .\env1\Scripts\activate
(env1) PS C:\Users\kyrlon\Desktop> deactivate env1
PS C:\Users\klongwood3\Desktop> python -m venv env1

An alternative is to use command prompt as such:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19044.1889]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\kyrlon>py -m venv py_venv
C:\Users\kyrlon>.\py_venv\Scripts\activate.bat
(py_venv) C:\Users\kyrlon>

OR

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19044.1889]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\kyrlon>python -m venv py_venv
C:\Users\kyrlon>.\py_venv\Scripts\activate.bat
(py_venv) C:\Users\kyrlon>

This doesn't address the question. The question is why `py` doesn't work for OP. Creating the environment is different from activating or deactivating it, and shouldn't require running a Powershell script (`venv` is a Python module after all). Also, the error is very clearly being reported about `py`, i.e. the Python Launcher for Windows, not about any given script. — Karl Knechtel, Sep 22 '22 at 00:54
I'm not following the confusion you are having with my post. In virtual environments with Powershell, activate correlates to the `activate.ps1` script. Here is another SO [post](https://stackoverflow.com/a/10030999/13642249) for reference if you are not familiar with it. — kyrlon, Sep 22 '22 at 01:06
Yes, I understand that perfectly. But OP is **not asking about** `activate`. OP is asking about *`py` itself*. Notice that the error message says, not that there is a permissions error running the activate script, but that the script was *not found*. That happens because the previous line, trying to *create* the venv, *also* had an error, resulting from `py` not being found. — Karl Knechtel, Sep 22 '22 at 01:07

Cannot make Virtual Envoirment

1 Answers1