How To Solve The Error “Could not install packages due to an OSError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified”

The Error “Could not install packages due to an OSError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified” in Python occurs when you try to install a package, but you do not have any necessary privileges to install it. To fix that, you can try again as administrator or run the command: pip install ‘package’ – -user. Let’s learn more about it with the explanation and examples below.

How Does This Error Happen?

The Error “Could not install packages due to an OSError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified” happens when you try to install a package without the necessary permissions.

Look at the example below to see how this Error happens when installing a package in the command prompt. 

pip install numpy

Output

Could not install packages due to an OSError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified

How To Fix The Error “Could not install packages due to an OSError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified“

To solve the Error “Could not install packages due to an OSError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified” in Python, you do that in 3 ways.

• Run the command as administrator.
• Update the pip version, then install the package as usual.
• Run the command: pip install ‘package_name’ –user

Let’s learn more about them in the next title below.

Run the command as administrator

A simple way to solve this Error is to run the command as administrator. To do that, you should follow these steps.

• Step 1: Find the Command Prompt in the search bar.
• Step 2: Click on Run as administrator.

You can do that like this.

After doing that, you can install the package as usual. Here are examples to install a package in some environments in Python.

Update the pip version

Another way to fix this Error is to update the pip version in your environment. After updating, you can install the package as usual. To do that, run the following command. 

For Python 2:

python -m pip install --user --upgrade pip

For Python 3:

python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade pip

Install a package without the special privileges

The last solution to fix this Error is installing a package without special privileges by running the following command.

For Python 2:

pip install 'package_name' --user

For Python 3:

pip3 install 'package_name' --user

Summary

We have shown you three ways to solve the Error “Could not install packages due to an OSError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified” in Python. I think the first way: running the command as administrator would be best for you because it is simple and after that, you can install a specified package as usual. We hope this tutorial is helpful to you. Thanks!