Idle no longer works

[Terry Reedy]

On 8/11/2012 7:09 PM, Opap-OJ wrote:
> I can no longer open the Idle IDE for Python on Windows 7.
>
> For 3-5 years I used Idle for all my python work.  But in January
> this happens:
>
> When I right click on a python file and choose "open with Idle"
> nothing happens.
>
> If I double-click on the file itself, it briefly opens an MS-DOS
> looking window, then closes it immediately.

That should run the file and discard the output. Above is typical

> Any idea why?

*Something* very specific to your system changed. Either registry 
associations for .py are screwed, or your Python installation is 
damaged. Easiest fix is to uninstall and re-install Python. But download 
a more recent version first. Uninstall might not be needed, but makes 
process more like to work.

In the regular interactive command prompt interpreter

import idlelib.idle

should start idle.


-- 
Terry Jan Reedy