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I'm setting up a new machine and am using 64-bit Python 2.6.6 on Windows 7. I installed a pre-compiled version of setuptools.

When I run setuptools from an administrator (or user) command shell, it spawns a new command window and then closes it after completing. I'm unable to see any output.

easy_install --help 

Every time I've installed setuptools before has been on 32-bit Python and of course the behavior is as expected (output in the same command window).

There are two related questions already in stackoverflow. The first one appears identical to my problem. However, that question was incorrectly closed as a duplicate of this second question.

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It needs administrator privileges. The second question answers your question. –  Rafe Kettler Apr 25 '11 at 4:14
No, that actually wasn't the solution (and it also didn't solve the problem of the first question). Running the command window as an administrator did not solve the problem. While the symptoms were the same, the issue appeared to be with the compiled binary I installed. –  davenaff Apr 27 '11 at 16:35
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up vote 3 down vote accepted

I was ultimately able to resolve this. I believe it was the result of the compilation method used for the setuptools binary.

I had originally used the compiled binaries that were available here:


I just had to uninstall the setuptools binary and install one available here:


Presumably you'd also be able to compile your own version should you need a win64 binary. I had tried installing 32-bit Python and again used a binary from the first link, but had the same problem. Using the compiled 32-bit version on pypi (of course on 32-bit python) solved my issue.

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