How to Add Python to Windows PATH

The PATH is the system variable that your operating system uses to locate needed executables from the command line or Terminal window.

Click Start and type “Environment”. Browse to Edit the system environment variables.

1. Click New
2. Enter Variable = “PATH“
3. Paste PATH to Python installer
   To find the Python executable, you’ll need to look for a file called python.exe. The Python executable could be in a directory in C:\Python\ or in your AppData\ folder, for instance. If the executable were in AppData\, then the path would typically look something like this:

C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python

In this example I set the PATH to Python.

python --version

Understanding What PATH Is

PATH is an environment variable that contains a list of paths to folders. Each path in PATH is separated by a colon or a semicolon—a colon for UNIX-based systems and a semicolon for Windows. It’s like a Python variable with a long string as its value. The difference is that PATH is a variable accessible by almost all programs.