Run Python scripts in PowerShell directly

Question

I'm using Windows PowerShell. Let's say I have a script called test.py that prints a few things. If I do:

PS D:\>.\test.py

then it opens a CMD window which prints a few things and then closes. It's actually running the Python interpreter under CMD. If I do

PS D:\>python test.py

it acts like I'd expect it to, with the output appearing in PowerShell.

How can I make it so that the script will run in PowerShell when I just give its name?

Answer 1

Edit the PATHEXT environment variable and add the .py extension.

Just add this line to your PowerShell profile:

$env:PATHEXT += ";.py"

or you could just edit PATHEXT globally in the system settings (just search in the Start menu for "environment" and choose the option for "Edit environment variables for your account").

Answer 2

You might have more than one version of Python installed and the version IDLE is using is newer. To see what version of python you have you can type >python -V at a command line. If that version looks appropriate then you might need the full path to the file as the second parameter. E.g >python C:\myfile.py.

If you installed Python correctly there is always a chance that just typing the name of the script will run it with python. E.g. >myfile.py

I always find that adding C:\Python27 to the %PATH% variable and .PY to the %PATHEXT% variable makes running scripts easier. In this case just >myfile should work.

Edit after Update:

Typing just >python with no parameters opens python in 'interactive mode' which is different from the batch or scripting mode that your script is intended for. If executed with arguments the first argument is taken as the file path and further arguments are passed to the script in the sys.argv list.