'python3' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

I am using Python 3.5.2 version on Windows 7 and tried using python3 app.py. I am getting this error message:

'python3' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file. 

Is there any specific cause about why the python3 command is not working?

I also verified that the PATH is added to environment variables.

Solution 1:

There is no python3.exe file, that is why it fails.

Try:

py

instead.

py is just a launcher for python.exe. If you have more than one python versions installed on your machine (2.x, 3.x) you can specify what version of python to launch by

py -2 or py -3

Solution 2:

You can also try this: Go to the path where Python is installed in your system. For me it was something like C:\Users\\Local Settings\Application Data\Programs\Python\Python37 In this folder, you'll find a python executable. Just create a duplicate and rename it to python3. Works every time.

Solution 3:

Python3.exe is not defined in windows

Specify the path for required version of python when you need to used it by creating virtual environment for your project

Python 3

virtualenv --python=C:\PATH_TO_PYTHON\python.exe environment

Python2

virtualenv --python=C:\PATH_TO_PYTHON\python.exe environment

then activate the environment using

.\environment\Scripts\activate.ps1

Solution 4:

If python2 is not installed on your computer, you can try with just python instead of python3

Solution 5:

In my case I have a git hook on commit, specified by admin. So it was not very convenient for me to change the script (with python3 calls).

And the simplest workaround was just to copy python.exe to python3.exe.

Now I could launch both python and python3.