Starting With Python IDLE (Overview)

Darren Jones
Starting With Python IDLE Darren Jones 00:53
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If you’ve recently downloaded Python onto your computer, then you may have noticed a new program on your machine called IDLE. You might be wondering, “What is this program doing on my computer? I didn’t download that!” While you may not have downloaded this program on your own, IDLE comes bundled with every Python installation. It’s there to help you get started with the language right out of the box. In this course, you’ll learn how to work in Python IDLE and a few cool tricks you can use on your Python journey!

In this course, you’ll learn:

  • What Python IDLE is
  • How to interact with Python directly using IDLE
  • How to edit, execute, and debug Python files with IDLE
  • How to customize Python IDLE to your liking
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Sample Code (.zip)

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Course Slides (.pdf)

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Avatar image for Reinhard Neuwirth

Reinhard Neuwirth on June 12, 2026

Hi Darren, Recently updating my Python installation to 3.14.5 I have lost the ability to right-click my .py scripts, be presented with the option of opening with IDLE. The options presented now are to open with Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code, and some others, like pycharm, but the IDLE option has disapppeared. Trying Open with - Choose another app gets me nowhere. I wonder if you could help, I am using Windows10. I should add that I can of course open IDLE and then open the file, but the right-clicking option, with files I am working with presented as icons on the window, has become such a convenient workflow.

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Bartosz Zaczyński RP Team on June 20, 2026

@Reinhard Neuwirth that “Edit with IDLE” entry is a known casualty of Python upgrades on Windows, and the good news is your IDLE install is almost certainly fine. The entry isn’t attached to whatever app currently opens .py files, it’s attached to Python’s own file type (the Python.File type registered by the installer). When an upgrade (or VS Code / PyCharm) takes over the .py association, Windows switches to a different file type, and the IDLE entry stops showing up even though it’s still registered.

Two ways to get it back:

  1. Reset the .py association to the Python launcher. Right-click any .py file, choose Properties, and on the General tab click Change next to “Opens with.” Pick Python (the launcher, py.exe) from the list. If it isn’t listed, choose More apps -> Look for another app on this PC and browse to py.exe (usually in C:\Windows). Once .py files use the Python file type again, “Edit with IDLE” should reappear in the right-click menu.
  2. If it still doesn’t show, re-run the Python 3.14.5 installer and choose Modify -> Repair (keep “tcl/tk and IDLE” and the “py launcher” options checked). That re-registers the context menu entry for the current version.

In the meantime, you can always open a file straight into IDLE from a terminal:

PS> py -m idlelib path\to\your_script.py

Let me know if the entry comes back after the association reset, and the rest of the team can dig further if not.

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