Virtualenv keeps loading global site packages on Windows - windows

Question

I've looked around on SO, and the answers I have found to my problem haven't allowed me to solve it yet.
I want to use isolated virtualenv environments, but for one reason or another, virtualenv keeps loading global site packages, when in django's shell...
I tried to clean up PATH variables, until only c:\Python26\Scripts and c:\Python26 remain. I then create my environment.
virtualenv --distribute --no-site-packages myproject
I then activate the virtualenv. PATH is now (irrelevant vars scrapped):
PATH=E:\Development\django_projects\myproject\Scripts;C:\Panda3D-1.7.0\python;C:\Panda3D-1.7.0\bin;c:\python26\Scripts;
PYTHONPATH=C:\Panda3D-1.7.0\
So far, so good. I launch python...
>>> import django
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named django
Let's just try a module I'm sure is in my c:\python site-packages directory.
>>> import BeautifulSoup
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named BeautifulSoup
Yay! No global site packages! On to the next one then. From the command prompt, I type:
django-admin.py
And it works! But wait... I haven't installed Django yet. How is this possible?
After this, it gets even weirder... I first add these to virtualenv's activate.bat script so that Django can find my settings.
set PYTHONPATH=E:\Development\django_projects\myproject\
set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=settings.development
Now I launch django-admin.py shell and
In [1]: import BeautifulSoup
In [2]: BeautifulSoup.__file__
Out[2]: 'C:\\Python26\\lib\\site-packages\\BeautifulSoup.pyc'
How is this even possible?
Flash of insight
While typing this, I suddenly get it. .py is a file extension coupled with my c:\python26\python.exe executable, instead of the virtualenv one!
python manage.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "manage.py", line 2, in <module>
from django.core.management import execute_manager
ImportError: No module named django.core.management
Heh. Anyone has any idea of how to couple the .py file extension to my virtualenv's python executable instead of the system defined python executable?

Answer 1

A little bit of extra .bat hackery can easily fix this. My standard additions to activate.bat are:
REM custom venv settings
set PYTHONPATH=%\VIRTUAL_ENV%;%\VIRTUAL_ENV%\conf;%\VIRTUAL_ENV%\apps
set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=settings
ftype Python.File=%VIRTUAL_ENV%\Scripts\python.exe %1 %*
and to deactivate.bat
REM restore ftype
ftype Python.File=C:\tools\Python27\python.exe %1 %*

Answer 2

You could make a .bat file and modify PATH and PYTHONPATH in there, and then run .py from that .bat file.
Something like this i think
set PATH=C:\Python26;
python myfile.py
Ofcourse, add anything else to your path that you want.

Answer 3

I had the same "Access denied" problems as Dan with m0nonoke's answer on my Windows 7 setup using cmd.exe.
But I found this work around using a replacement shell TCC/LE and a customised startup file...
Under working directory create subdirectory config. In this directory
create startup file for TCC/LE called tcstart.btm
#echo off
rem Override system python binding to handle virtualenvironments
set .py;.pyc=python.exe
Now create (copy) TCC/LE shortcut on desktop and rename it
appropriately. Open Properties for shortcut and add to Target
“C:\django\config\tcstart.btm”. You probably want to set Start in to
something useful, like C:\django
Solution found in this guide on installing Django and Windows.