Edit with IDLE missing from Right-click Menu

in Windows Explorer

Before proceeding to uninstall and reinstall Python manually, you might wish
to try steps 12 and 13 first to see if it fixes your problem. Otherwise, start
from step 1.

1. Find the Python installer that was downloaded following the

instructions in Mission 0. The default location should be in your
Downloads folder. Look for either “python-3.8.1-amd64.exe” for the 64-
bit version, or “python-3.8.1.exe” for the 32-bit version.

2. Double-click to run the Python installer. You will get a dialog similar to
this:

3. Select Modify.

If the “py launcher” option is checked and greyed out, then continue
with step 4. Otherwise go to step 8.
4. Close the Python Setup by clicking Cancel and open “Apps” in Settings.
For Windows 7 users, open “Programs and Features” in Control Panel.
(Hint: You can type “Add or Remove Programs” in your start menu and
it will bring up the same page.)

5. Search for “Python Launcher” and uninstall it.

6. Once it is uninstalled, re-run the Python installer mentioned in step 1

and select Modify.
7. Enable the option “py launcher”, then click Next

8. Enable “Associate files with Python”

9. Click Install.

10. Once done, open Windows Explorer and find a .py file. Right-click and
check if “Edit with IDLE → Edit with IDLE 3.8 (64-bit)” is there. If
not, continue with the next step.

11. Right-click on a .py file and choose “Open with → Choose another
app”. (Note older versions of Windows may have slightly different dialogs
but the process is the same.)
12. Make sure you check to always use this app to open this kind of file.
You might see two Python icons. Select the one with a ROCKET ICON.

If you do not see any Rocket Icon, expand “More apps” and scroll down
and choose “Look for another app on this PC”. Navigate to
C:\Windows and select “py.exe” and click Open.

13. You should now get Edit with IDLE in your right-click menu.
 14. If it is still missing, please post in the forum with the following
information: Open Command Prompt and enter the following
commands line-by-line:
reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Python.File /s
reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.py /s
reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Python /s
reg query HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.py

Then either screenshot or copy/paste the output of the commands into

the forum.