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ChemaCortes
Asked: 2020-03-08 05:36:54 +0800 CST 2020-03-08 05:36:54 +0800 CST

After upgrading conda, python gives error "VCRUNTIME140.dll is missing"

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Using anaconda version of python 3.5 for windows , after updating some conda packages the python interpreter stops working giving an error

"The program can't start because VCRUNTIME140.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."

Sometimes this error occurs in some virtual environment, always with python 3.5. Forcing down the python version 3.5 to 3.4 the problem disappears:

C:\> conda install -n myenv python=3.4
python

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    NOTE : this bug is registered as: issue #443

    The problem originates from updating the windows package msvc_runtime, which should be accompanied by the necessary DLLs for its operation.

    If you look at the list of versions of msvc_runtime:

    C:\>conda search msvc_runtime
Using Anaconda Cloud api site https://api.anaconda.org
Fetching package metadata: ......
msvc_runtime   1.0.0   vc10_0  defaults [vc10]
               1.0.0   vc14_0  defaults [vc14]
               1.0.0    vc9_0  defaults [vc9]
            .  1.0.1        0  defaults
               1.0.1   vc10_0  defaults [vc10]
            *  1.0.1   vc14_0  defaults [vc14]
               1.0.1    vc9_0  defaults [vc9]

    We have two versions, 1.0.0and 1.0.1, with different build tags depending on the version of Visual C++ used. By default, it upgrades to the latest version, the 1.0.1untagged one, which consists of an empty ( transactional ) package, with no associated DLLs. This behavior may be the desired one for a development system where the Visual C++ libraries are installed; but in the case of a normal user, you will need to install these libraries on your own. If care is not taken, it condacan break the system after upgrading the package msvc_runtime, perhaps as a dependency on another package.

    It is recommended to force the version of the package msvc_runtime( "pinning" ) for which you have to create a file called pinnedin the conda-metaconda installation directory that contains the following line:

    msvc_runtime 1.0.1 vc14_0

    This way we ensure that the version 1.0.1with the Visual C++-14msvc_runtime DLLs will be installed . This pinning should not affect the dependent packages since it is the same package, just with the runtime DLLs added.msvc_runtime

    (Documentation on pinning in conda )

    UPDATE : after studying the problem in the buglog , it was decided to remove the package without DLLs from the repository, so conda now correctly selects the package that corresponds to the python installation.

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