virtualenv activate does not work

Question

I am trying to create a virtual environment to test an api.

I can create the environment just fine using virtualenv test, then I can cd into it. When I try to run activate, I get this error:

PS C:\Users\Bright Bridge\Desktop\autocomplete_demo\Scripts> activate
activate : The term 'activate' 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
+ activate
+ ~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (activate:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException


Suggestion [3,General]: The command activate was not found, but does exist in the current location. Windows PowerShell does not load commands from the current
 location by default. If you trust this command, instead type: ".\activate". See "get-help about_Command_Precedence" for more details.

I recently updated windows, and it replaced the cmd with Windows Powershell. My virtualenv worked fine with the cmd, so I suspect it may have to do with the way the Powershell does things.

How can I activate the virtualenv?

Solution 1

If you press WindowsKey + R, and type cmd when the box comes up, it should bring up the command line interface instead of powershell!

Solution 2

For those of you still interested, the output gives you the answer:

If you trust this command, instead type: ".\activate".

So use a relative path name to run the activate script in powershell, or use an absolute path

Solution 3

Just Enter one PowerShell Command

1. .\Scripts\activate

   Rather Then

2. ./Scripts/activate

Solution 4

You need to set windows execution policies. According to official documentation of virtualenv.

Run in powershell Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUse

Now you can activate virtual env. using \Scripts\Activate.ps1

Hope it solves it!

Solution 5

Execute .\activate instead of activate

That worked for me.

View more solutions

Comments

[AetherUnbound]

If you press WindowsKey + R, and type cmd when the box comes up, does it still bring up powershell?

[wanderer0810]

No, it brings up the cmd. I have just been navigating to it by right clicking the start button. I'll see if it works through the cmd.

[wanderer0810]

It works in the cmd. You should post this as an answer so I can accept this. Thanks a ton!

[AetherUnbound]

Glad it worked out! That's quite odd that powershell comes up instead.

[phunsukwangdu]

pymote.readthedocs.io/en/latest/install/windows_virtualenv.h‌​tml

[Zizzipupp]

And what are you meant to do with it??

[Kakashi Hatake]

This did work for me as I used .\env\Scripts\activate But can anyone tell me why is my poweshell giving the same error as in the question above, Because it was working fine before today. Suddenly it started giving me this error.

[Jose R]

This solved the issue for me, in my case, I had to run it with the "./" at the beginning of the path in addition to this solution.