How do I install SciPy on 64 bit Windows?

Question

How do I install SciPy on my system?

For the NumPy part (that SciPy depends on) there is actually an installer for 64 bit Windows: numpy-1.3.0.win-amd64-py2.6.msi (is direct download URL, 2310144 bytes).

Running the SciPy superpack installer results in this message in a dialog box:

Cannot install. Python version 2.6 required, which was not found in the registry.

I already have Python 2.6.2 installed (and a working Django installation in it), but I don't know about any Registry story.

The registry entries seem to already exist:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\Help]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\Help\Main Python Documentation]
@="D:\Python262\Doc\python262.chm"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\InstallPath]
@="D:\Python262\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\InstallPath\InstallGroup]
@="Python 2.6"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\Modules]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\PythonPath]
@="D:\Python262\Lib;D:\Python262\DLLs;D:\Python262\Lib\lib-tk"

What I have done so far:

Step 1

Downloaded the NumPy superpack installer numpy-1.3.0rc2-win32-superpack-python2.6.exe (direct download URL, 4782592 bytes). Running this installer resulted in the same message, "Cannot install. Python version 2.6 required, which was not found in the registry.". Update: there is actually an installer for NumPy that works - see beginning of the question.

Step 2

Tried to install NumPy in another way. Downloaded the zip package numpy-1.3.0rc2.zip (direct download URL, 2404011 bytes), extracted the zip file in a normal way to a temporary directory, D: emp7 umpy-1.3.0rc2 (where setup.py and README.txt is). I then opened a command line window and:

d:
cd D:	emp7
umpy-1.3.0rc2
setup.py install

This ran for a long time and also included use of cl.exe (part of Visual Studio). Here is a nearly 5000 lines long transcript (230 KB).

This seemed to work. I can now do this in Python:

import numpy as np
np.random.random(10)

with this result:

array([ 0.35667511,  0.56099423,  0.38423629,  0.09733172,  0.81560421,
        0.18813222,  0.10566666,  0.84968066,  0.79472597,  0.30997724])

Step 3

Downloaded the SciPy superpack installer, scipy-0.7.1rc3- win32-superpack-python2.6.exe (direct download URL, 45597175 bytes). Running this installer resulted in the message listed in the beginning

Step 4

Tried to install SciPy in another way. Downloaded the zip package scipy-0.7.1rc3.zip (direct download URL, 5506562 bytes), extracted the zip file in a normal way to a temporary directory, D: emp7\scipy-0.7.1 (where setup.py and README.txt is). I then opened a command line window and:

d:
cd D:	emp7\scipy-0.7.1
setup.py install

This did not achieve much - here is a transcript (about 95 lines).

And it fails:

>>> import scipy as sp2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
ImportError: No module named scipy

Platform: Python 2.6.2 installed in directory D:\Python262, Windows XP 64 bit SP2, 8 GB RAM, Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition installed.

The startup screen of the installed Python is:

Python 2.6.2 (r262:71605, Apr 14 2009, 22:46:50) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Value of PATH, result from SET in a command line window:

Path=D:\Perl64\site\bin;D:\Perl64\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\PC Connectivity Solution\;D:\Perl\site\bin;D:\Perl\bin;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;d:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP\;D:\MassLynx\;D:\Program Files (x86)\Analyst\bin;d:\Python262;d:\Python262\Scripts;D:\Program Files (x86)\TortoiseSVN\bin;D:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;D:\Program Files (x86)\IDM Computer Solutions\UltraEdit\

user_231856 · Answer

Unofficial 64-bit installers for NumPy and SciPy are available at http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/

Make sure that you download & install the packages (aka. wheels) that match your CPython version and bitness (ie. cp35 = Python v3.5; win_amd64 = x86_64).

You'll want to install NumPy first; From a CMD prompt with administrator privileges for a system-wide (aka. Program Files) install:

C:\>pip install numpy‑+mkl‑cp‑cpm‑.whl

Or include the --user flag to install to the current user's application folder (Typically %APPDATA%\Python on Windows) from a non-admin CMD prompt:

C:\>pip install --user numpy‑+mkl‑cp‑cpm‑.whl

Then do the same for SciPy:

C:\>pip install [--user] scipy‑‑cp‑cpm‑.whl

Don't forget to replace , , and appropriately if you copy & paste any of these examples. And also that you must use the numpy & scipy packages from the ifd.uci.edu link above (or else you will get errors if you try to mix & match incompatible packages -- uninstall any conflicting packages first [ie. pip list]).

user_197011 · Answer

For completeness: Enthought has a Python distribution which includes SciPy; however, it's not free. Caveat: I've never used it.

Update: This answer had been long forgotten until an upvote brought me back to it. At this time, I'll second endolith's suggestion of Anaconda, which is free.

user_125507 · Answer

Another alternative: http://www.pythonxy.com/

Free and includes lots of stuff meant to work together smoothly.

This person says

Did you try linux.pythonxy ? ( http://linux.pythonxy.com ).

It's 64 bit ready ...

Though I'm not quite sure what that means.

Update:

This appears to be dead. I use Anaconda now, which has 32-bit or 64-bit installers.

user_5918696 · Answer

I have a 32-bit Python 3.5 on a 64-bit Windows 8.1 machine. I just tried almost every way I can find on Stack Overflow and no one works!

Then on here I found it. It says:

SciPy is software for mathematics, science, and engineering.

Requires numpy+mkl.

Install numpy+mkl before installing scipy.

mkl matters!! But nobody said anything about that before!

Then I installed mkl:

C:\Users\****\Desktop\a> pip install mkl_service-1.1.2-cp35-cp35m-win32.whl
Processing c:\users\****\desktop\a\mkl_service-1.1.2-cp35-cp35m-win32.whl
Installing collected packages: mkl-service
Successfully installed mkl-service-1.1.2

Then I installed SciPy:

C:\Users\****\Desktop\a>pip install scipy-0.18.1-cp35-cp35m-win32.whl
Processing c:\users\****\desktop\a\scipy-0.18.1-cp35-cp35m-win32.whl
Installing collected packages: scipy
Successfully installed scipy-0.18.1

It worked~ yeah :)

A tip: You can just google "whl_file_name.whl" to know where to download it~ :)

Update:

After all these steps you will find that you still can not use SciPy in Python 3. If you print "import scipy" you will find there are error messages, but don't worry, there is only one more thing to do. Here ——just comment out that line, simple and useful.

from numpy._distributor_init import NUMPY_MKL

I promise that it is the last thing to do :)

PS: Before all these steps, you better install NumPy first. That's very simple using this command:

pip install numpy

How do I install SciPy on 64 bit Windows?

16 Answers