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pythonpython-3.xcmdpip

Fatal error in launcher: Unable to create process using "file path1" file path2" : The system cannot find the file specified

I am trying to use different versions of Python on my Windows pc and I'm getting this error when using pip:

Fatal error in launcher: Unable to create process using '"c:\users\mypc\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\python.exe" "C:\Python38\Scripts\pip.exe" ': The system cannot find the file specified.

I understand that this might mean there's two PATH to each of those locations so it's confused, but c:\users\mypc\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\python.exe doesn't even exist on my computer nor in my PATH.

Output of where python is:

C:\Python38\python.exe`

Here is the PATH in readable format

C:\Program Files\Intel\WiFi\bin\
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\WirelessCommon\
C:\WINDOWS\system32
C:\WINDOWS
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem
C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\
C:\Program Files\nodejs\
C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
C:\Program Files\wkhtmltopdf
C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources\bin
C:\ProgramData\DockerDesktop\version-bin
C:\Python38\Scripts
C:\Python38\
"C:\Users\mypc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
C:\bin"
C:\Program Files\Intel\WiFi\bin\
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\WirelessCommon\
C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition 2019.2.1\bin
C:\Program Files (x86)\Nmap
C:\Users\mypc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
C:\Users\mypc\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin
C:\Users\mypc\AppData\Roaming\npm
C:\Users\mypc\AppData\Local\Programs\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\x64\
C:\Program Files\wkhtmltopdf
C:\ProgramData\mypc\atom\bin
C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm Community Edition 2019.3.3\bin
C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.2\bin
Solution

  • it seems like python team may have implemented some security measures. The new method now is just to prefix python -m before your commands.

    Let's say you are trying to install pygame (any package) with pip. For that, you'll use

    python -m pip install pygame //Or any package name

    Also, upgrading pip and all other commands will also use the same command structure:

    python -m pip install --upgrade pip