• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

data Rebellion

Learning through Adventure

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Beginner Python Course
    • Preface – The Journey Ahead
    • Prologue – The Door
    • Chapter 1 – Arithmetic and Variables
    • Chapter 2 – Strings and Lists
    • Chapter 3 – Conditional Statements
    • Chapter 4 – Functions
    • Chapter 5 – Loops
    • Chapter 6 – Built-in Functions and Methods
    • Chapter 7 – Imports and Nesting
    • Chapter 8 – Opening the Door
    • Epilogue – Only the Beginning
  • About
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Python / Quick Guide to Installing Python

Quick Guide to Installing Python

Updated April 10, 2018. Published September 25, 2016. Leave a Comment

Python programming language logo

This guide will help you get the newest version of Python 3 up and running on your computer in about 5-10 minutes. It shows how the process looks on Windows, but it should be similarly straightforward for Mac and Linux users. If you want some more bells and whistles than just the Python programming language, check out the guide to installing Anaconda. Or if you don’t want to go to the trouble of installing something but still want to use Python, check out repl.it, a browser-based coding environment.


Go to www.python.org/downloads.

Python download webpage


Click “Download Python 3.x.y”. Don’t worry about different versions of Python, or the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit installations. If you’re a beginning programmer, it’s almost certainly not going to matter for your purposes, and reinstalling a different version later is a snap.

Downloading Python

Click “Save File”.


Go to your “Downloads” folder.

Your local Downloads folder


Double-click the “python-3.x.y.exe” file.

Run the Python executable


Click “Run”.

Python installation starting screen


Check the box to “Add Python 3.x to PATH”.

Add Python to your PATH


Click “Install Now”.

Setup is in progress


Wait for the installation to complete.

Setup was successful

Open and bookmark the “online tutorial” and “documentation” links for future reference.


Search on your computer for a program called “IDLE (Python 3.x 32-bit)” and open it.

Open up your Python IDLE

This is the shell, where you can enter one-line commands. For example, type:

1
print("Hell, oh whirled")

and press Enter (like when a magical whirlpool asks you what the opposite of heaven is, and you respond that of course it’s hell, oh great whirled-one of the deep. No idea why programmers always do this).

Print a command in the IDLE, such as Hello World


You can also try such illuminating statements as (type just the statements after the “>>>” symbols, what appears on the following line is the result):

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
>>> print(5 + 5)
10
 
>>> print(“rebel” * 5)
'rebelrebelrebelrebelrebel'
 
>>> print(5 == “five”)
False
 
>>> molotov = "cocktail"
 
>>> print(molotov)
'cocktail'

Mess around with this until you get bored. Notice that typing and running code line by line can be a little tiresome. What if you want to run a whole bunch of code at once? No problem.


In the Shell go to “File” -> “New File” (or just hit Ctrl + N). This will pull up a blank space in which you can write code.

Hit ctrl+n to open up a new code file


Go ahead and enter some code

Enter various commands into the IDLE to make sure it works


Now to run the code, first save the code with the “.py” extension as in “test.py”. You can save it anywhere you want for now. I just saved mine to my Desktop. You may want to make a folder somewhere to store your code as you test Python out.

Then either select “Run” -> “Run Module” or press F5. You should see something like the following:

Run the code file and see it get executed

And there you have it, the power of Python is yours to wield! Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

Python Automation Project Ideas Ebook Front Page

Free Ebook: 88 Python Project Ideas for Automating Your Life

The best way to learn programming is by working on real-world projects, so why not work on projects that also save you time and sanity? In this free, curated collection, you'll find project ideas for automating:

  • Common office tasks
  • Birthday gifts and wishes
  • Grocery and meal planning
  • Relationships (just the tedious parts!)
  • And quite a bit more

Subscribe to Data Rebellion and get this Ebook delivered straight to your inbox, as well as other exclusive content from time to time on efficiently learning to code useful things, vanquishing soul-crushing work, and having fun along the way.

Reader Interactions

Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copyright © 2023

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy