Python Mode in Emacs on Windows

Python mode in Emacs on GNU/Linux works out of the box with no setup if you have Python installed on your system. However, on Windows, Python mode's functionality to open the Python shell and import the code in the active buffer into the shell does not work out of the box even if Python is installed. It does not help to add the directory Python is in to the exec-path or add it to the $PATH environment variable either. After trying those two things, I looked for a useful variable to set the path to the python executable and tried a couple of promising ones before finding the correct solution. It is very simple, but it is still extra setup that you don't need on any other OS than Windows.

This is the Elisp you need in your init.el (or whatever you call the file that ultimately loads your config):

(setq python-shell-interpreter "c:/Python312/python.exe")

Another thing I discovered today is that Windows 11 has a Beta feature to switch to UTF-8 text encoding. I hope Microsoft prioritises this feature and switch to proper line endings (LF) at the same time to make Windows slightly less incompatible with the rest of the world. Most other OSes set UTF-8 and POSIX line endings as their defaults 20 years ago. It's a feature that would make sense, unlike removing functionality and reimplementing it again or adding enshittification of the kind where the user's default browser is not respected when you search the internet through the Start menu (to add eyballs to Bing advertising through Edge), which seems to be Microsoft's development strategy for Windows 11 thus far. UTF-8 and LF line endings would make Windows less painful to use for developers and sysadmins.