How to install python on Windows without an MSI installer?

Question

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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

After looking at this question I would suggest or advise you should download and install the latest version instead (python 3.8). it would save you some stress and the pain of having to download a higher version later on.

Thank you.