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Take python 3.6.x for example. The last windows installer for python 3.6.x is 3.6.8: no more installers for 3.6x version that comes later (see https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/) 3.6.8 happens to be the last maintenance release of python3.6, I don't know if it is somehow related to not propose a package installer for windows but only sources.

Practical problem here: How should I proceed to install 3.6.12 on Windows?

Please don’t simply advice « Install 3.7 or 3.8, it is more recent ». I know that 3.6 is not the latest, but sometimes you have to stick with a particular version for support or compatibility.

Since I have to use 3.6.x, I am looking for the latest version available in this branch (currently 3.6.12) to still benefit from security patches.

This gives two path:

  1. install 3.6.8 with MSI installer then upgrade to 3.6.12 from source,
  2. install 3.6.12 from source.

What are the steps involved for option 1 or 2?

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  • It does state that "binary installers are not provided." in the release notes.
    – SiHa
    Commented Sep 1, 2020 at 11:43
  • Is it absolutely required to use that specific version of Python?
    – Aaron Keesing
    Commented Sep 1, 2020 at 12:07
  • @SiHa yes I am using oci python sdk which is only validated officially against 3.5.x and 3.6.x
    – kral2
    Commented Sep 1, 2020 at 21:02
  • @AaronKeesing in this specific case yes, for support reason. But same question would be valid for any python version with no packaged installer.
    – kral2
    Commented Sep 1, 2020 at 21:07

1 Answer 1

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It is possible to create your own MSI installer from the source distributions at https://www.python.org/downloads/source/. This is what I did to install Python 3.6.12 on my Windows machine.

In each source distribution, the files at PCBuild/readme.txt and Tools/msi/README.txt provide guidance for how to build your own Python installer. If you have not built Python from source before on Windows, this may be a challenge to set up.

If you do not want to build the installer yourself, you can download unofficial installers from https://github.com/adang1345/PythonWindows. These are the installers that I built recently as part of a personal project.

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  • 2
    That was exactly type of information I was looking for. Thank you for the guidance and also the prebuild installers I may give a try at some point … 👍
    – kral2
    Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 10:51

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