Setting up Python on Windows 7

1. Install Git Bash
2. Install Anaconda - Python3 should be picked unless there’s a good reason to pick Python2. I have tried installing Python for Windows before but Anaconda is surely the way to go if being used for Data Science/Machine Learning. It takes up more space but it is easier to install and comes with so many useful packages out of the box.
3. Python should automatically work in Git Bash. Use python -i to open the interpreter. Closing and reopening Git Bash should fix any issues with this.

Some handy commands

Installing a different version of Python

Conda lets us create different environments to easily manage this:

• conda create -n py36 python=3.6 anaconda
• conda create -n py27 python=2.7 anaconda

Then, to activate the py27 environment, activate py27 and to deactivate the current environment deactivate.

See a list of conda environments

• conda env list