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:\temp7\numpy-1.3.0rc2 (where setup.py and README.txt is). I then opened a command line window and:

d:
cd D:\temp7\numpy-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:\temp7\scipy-0.7.1 (where setup.py and README.txt is). I then opened a command line window and:

d:
cd D:\temp7\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 "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
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\

Answer 1

You can either download a scientific Python distribution. One of the ones mentioned here: https://scipy.org/install.html

Or pip install from a whl file here if the above is not an option for you.

http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#scipy

Answer 2

I was getting this same error on a 32-bit machine. I fixed it by registering my Python installation, using the script at:

http://effbot.org/zone/python-register.htm

It's possible that the script would also make the 64-bit superpack installers work.

Answer 3

As the transcript for SciPy told you, SciPy isn't really supposed to work on Win64:

Warning: Windows 64 bits support is experimental, and only available for
testing. You are advised not to use it for production.

So I would suggest to install the 32-bit version of Python, and stop attempting to build SciPy yourself. If you still want to try anyway, you first need to compile BLAS and LAPACK, as PiotrLegnica says. See the transcript for the places where it was looking for compiled versions of these libraries.

Answer 4

WinPython is an open-source distribution that has 64-bit NumPy and SciPy.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

It is terrible to install such Python data science packages independently on Windows. Try Anaconda (one installer, 400 more Python packages, py2 & py3 support). Anaconda really helps me a lot!