Espressif Installation Manager (EIM) Fails with Install Python

[BrianP]

Long story short, in order to try and fix an issue I had I decided to remove VSCode and ESP32 development tools, etc., and start clean.

When I install VSCode and then the ESP-IDF framework I can't run EIM. It fails with Python Not Configured. If I select "Expert Installation" at Python Sanity Check it asks me to Install Python and then fails with "Install Python" again, etc..

If I run an offline installer (eg esp-idf-tools-setup-online-2.4.1.exe ) it works fine and I can run idf.py build from the command line on a known good project and it works fine.

If I run python from the command line I see
Python 3.13.12 (tags/v3.13.12:1cbe481, Feb 3 2026, 18:22:25) [MSC v.1944 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32

I can't finish the installation of the ESP-IDF extension because I can't run EIM.

Over the past few days I have added openSSL, virtualenv, and pip. As is common these days, I have about 20 copies of python on my machine (including 3 in C:\Espressif\) and they are all versions between 3.11 and 3.13.

I now can't do any esp32 code development with VScode.

How can I fix this? Thanks.

[BrianP]

I don't know how to edit my post but I was able to download esp-idf-extension-1.11.1.vsix and install that as an extension (Extensions, ..., install from vsix.

esp-idf-extension-1.11.1.vsix doesn't require the EIM so at least I can work on my code again.

This doesn't solve the problem with EIM, just bypasses it.

[GFeonix]

If you are using Windows, you can shutdown the python alias. Because on Windows, python alias is linked to the Microsoft Store(I don't know why but it just do so). EIM will use python alias to check the python version, so it will fail any way when the alias is on.

[Valerii62]

If you are using Windows, you can shutdown the python alias.

Tell us how to do this.

[BobaTrek]

I am having the same issue.
1) I install VSCode
2) I add the ESP-IDF extension
3) I open ESP-IDF Installation Manager (per instructions)
4) The EIM window pops up, and I select "New Installation", and then "Easy Installation"
5) I get a Python Not Configured" Error with Details: Please install Python or use custom installation to configure it.

I installed ESP-IDF using the VSCode extension a couple weeks ago on a different brand new laptop, and if I recall correctly, it instead installed Python 3.13 for me.

[Sprite]

Seems it's a known issue. What worked for me is using the command line version of EIM (eim-cli) to install ESP_IDF. If you then want to use it with Visual Studio Code, just install the extension and ignore the request to install it from there, it'll just pick up the version esp-cli installed.

[GFeonix]

If you are using Windows, you can shutdown the python alias.

Tell us how to do this.

In the Windows Settings, search "alias", then you will find how to shut.

[BrianP]

For some reason I was not alerted to the replies so after a couple days I stopped looking.

Thanks

[BrianP]

Just as a follow up I tried to install ESP IDF V6 via EIM gui and it failed despite disabling the aliases as suggested by GFeonix.

However, running EIM-CLI seemed to work.