python error when multiple pythons installed

[Brent Fraser]

When using the "MS4W-Shell", typing "python" results in:

Fatal Python error: init_sys_streams: can't initialize sys standard streams
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\io.py", line 54, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name 'open_code' from 'io' (unknown location)

This is due to my PYTHONHOME env variable being set to one of the other Python locations.

It would be nice if MS4W's setenv.bat would include:

set PYTHONHOME=C:\ms4w\Python

[Jeff McKenna]

Great enhancement, will add to 4.0.5 release

[Jeff McKenna]

I did much testing for this. What is now enabled for MS4W 4.0.5 release is that the default setenv.bat does include a commented line as:

REM set PYTHONHOME=\ms4w\Python

but the setup.exe installer will change that line to:

set PYTHONHOME=[the user's selected drive & folder]\ms4w\Python

I did not fully enable this setting for the .zip users, as I found that using '\ms4w\Python' without the drive letter caused conflicts and problems in testing. So (the super)-users of the .zip can modify the commented line when needed. It's more important to handle the installer users.

Thanks for the feedback!!!