Can't activate Python venv in Windows 10

Question

I created a virtual environment with python -m venv myenv from the command prompt, but I don't know how to activate it. I tried executing activate.bat from the command prompt but it does not activate.

In other words, I don't see the current path changed to (myenv) C:\Pathname... to indicate that myenv has been activated. When I execute activate.bat the venv is not activated.

Solution

This thread it old but I had the same problem today and found a working answer for it. I've been using python 3.6 venv for a few months now without issues but today I ran across a new error message:

C:\test>python -m venv vm
Error: Command '['C:\\test\\vm\\Scripts\\python.exe', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--upgrade', '--default-pip']' returned non-zero exit status 1

I scoured Stack and other resources for an answer but didn't find anything specific to Windows 10. (AskUbunto had a solution that was specific to Linux). I did find breadcrumbs spread out across the InterWebs and pieced this together.

You need this python script: https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py

1. Install your virtual environment as usual but without pip:

   python -m venv virtual --without-pip

This method will create all of the necessary files including the activate bat files.

2. Copy the get-pip.py file into the virtual\Scripts subdirectory

3. cd into the Scripts subdirectory and "activate" python Note: the cmd line should name the directory from which python was activated:

   (virtual) C:\test\virtual\Scripts>

(if it says (root), it's activated your core installation)

4. now execute the script

   C:\test\virtual\Scripts>python get-pip.py

once run, I typed:

(virtual) C:\test\virtual\Scripts>pip freeze

to generate a freeze list and verify proper installation. It should return nothing, no error msg, no freeze list.

5. Then I installed flask, tried pip freeze and noted the return was only for flask and dependent files:

(virtual) C:\test\virtual\Scripts>pip freeze
click==6.7
Flask==0.12.2
itsdangerous==0.24
Jinja2==2.9.6
MarkupSafe==1.0
Werkzeug==0.12.2

Comments

[kas]

Does anyone know what causes Python/Windows to get into this state?

[kas]

Actually, I had a custom Python file named "copy.py" in the root of my Python project. Renaming the file to something unique fixed the issue for me.