api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer

Question

Trying to install Miniconda3-py39_4.9.2-Windows-x86_64.exe on Windows 7 and I get this error:

pythonw.exe - System Error

The program can't start because api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

OK

I've seen similar errors before, and it seems to be a file that is missing from Windows 7 but present in later versions? Google just finds a bunch of other people with the same problem but no obvious solution, as well as the sketchy DLL download sites that probably contain malware or screw up the system.

Any reliable workaround for this issue?

Installing Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows as in https://superuser.com/a/1281366/13889 does not fix the problem

Solution

This is resolved in the bug-report from 2020
Issue 41412 - After installation on Windows7, 64bit Python 3.9.0b5 reports "api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-0.dll" missing and doesn't start:

Microsoft ended extended support for Windows 7 back in January of this year, so Python 3.9 does not support Windows 7, in accordance with PEP 11. I'd expect the installer to fail on unsupported versions of Windows.

The "solution" to that bug-report was to make the Python 3.9 installation fail on Windows 7 with an error message.

The only possible solution I can see might be to install an old version of Python that supported Windows 7.

An even better solution would be to upgrade to Windows 10, if this is a possibility.

Comments

[Ramhound]

Does this answer your question? Missing api-ms-win-core-sysinfo-l1-2-1.dll

[Mokubai]

Seems that that particular library will never be ported back to Windows 7, you need to update: superuser.com/questions/1178940/installing-documentdb-emulat‌​or

[endolith]

I wasn't able to install it. It popped up this (cryptic) error message and the installation process failed, leaving files on the drive. I'm going to have to pin python 3.8 I guess.

[harrymc]

My guess is that whatever friendly message was supposed to be issued for installing on Windows 7 never happened, because this DLL error happened first. I don't think that the developers test any more on Windows 7.