Select a Python environment for a project in Visual Studio
Applies to: 
Visual Studio 
Visual Studio for Mac Visual Studio Code
All code in a Python project runs within the context of a specific environment, such as a global Python environment, an Anaconda environment, a virtual environment, or a conda environment. Visual Studio also uses that environment for debugging, import and member completions, syntax checking, and any other tasks that require language services that are specific to the Python version and a set of installed packages.
All new Python projects in Visual Studio are initially configured to use the default global environment, which appears under the Python Environments node in Solution Explorer:
To change the environment for a project, right-click the Python Environments node and select Add Environment. You can also select Add Environment from the environment drop-down in the Python toolbar.
Once in the Add Environment dialog box, select the Existing environment tab, then select a new environment from the Environment drop-down list:
If you already added an environment other than the global default to a project, you might need to activate a newly added environment. Right-click that environment under the Python Environments node and select Activate Environment. To remove an environment from the project, select Remove.
Use virtual environments
A virtual environment is a unique combination of a specific Python interpreter and a specific set of libraries that is different from other global and conda environments. A virtual environment is specific to a project and is maintained in a project folder. That folder contains the environment's installed libraries along with a pyvenv.cfg file that specifies the path to the environment's base interpreter elsewhere on the file system. (That is, a virtual environment doesn't contain a copy of the interpreter, only a link to it.)
A benefit to using a virtual environment is that as you develop project over time, the virtual environment always reflects the exact dependencies of the project. (A shared global environment, on the other hand, contains any number of libraries whether you use them in your project or not.) You can then easily create a requirements.txt file from the virtual environment, which is then used to reinstall those dependencies on another development or production computer. For more information, see Manage required packages with requirements.txt.
When you open a project in Visual Studio that contains a requirements.txt file, Visual Studio automatically gives you the option to recreate the virtual environment. On computers where Visual Studio isn't installed, you can use pip install -r requirements.txt to restore the packages.
Because a virtual environment contains a hard-coded path to the base interpreter, and because you can recreate the environment using requirements.txt, you typically omit the entire virtual environment folder from source control.
The following sections explain how to activate an existing virtual environment in a project and how to create a new virtual environment.
In Visual Studio, a virtual environment can be activated for a project like any other through the Python Environments node in Solution Explorer.
Once a virtual environment is added to your project, it appears in the Python Environments window. You can then activate it like any other environment, and you can manage its packages.
Create a virtual environment
You can create a new virtual environment directly in Visual Studio as follows:
Right-click Python Environments in Solution Explorer and select Add Environment, or select Add Environment from the environments drop down list on the Python toolbar. In the Add Environment dialog that appears, select the Virtual Environment tab:
Specify a name for the virtual environment, select a base interpreter, and verify its location. Under Install packages from file, provide the path to a requirements.txt file if desired.
Review the other options in the dialog:
Option Description Set as current environment Activates the new environment in the selected project after the environment is created. Set as default environment for new projects Automatically sets and activates the virtual environment in any new projects created in Visual Studio. When using this option, the virtual environment should be placed in a location outside of a specific project. View in Python Environments window Specifies whether to open the Python Environments window after creating the environment. Make this environment available globally Specifies whether the virtual environment also acts as a global environment. When using this option, the virtual environment should be placed in a location outside of a specific project. Select Create to finalize the virtual environment. Visual Studio displays a progress bar while it configures the environment and downloads any necessary packages. Upon completion, the virtual environment is activated and appears in the Python Environments node in Solution Explorer and the Python Environments window for the containing project.
Activate an existing virtual environment
If you've already created a virtual environment elsewhere, you can activate it for a project as follows:
Right-click Python Environments in Solution Explorer and select Add Environment.
In the Browse dialog that appears, navigate to and select the folder that contains the virtual environment, and select OK. If Visual Studio detects a requirements.txt file in that environment, it asks whether to install those packages.
After a few moments, the virtual environment appears under the Python Environments node in Solution Explorer. The virtual environment is not activated by default, so right-click it and select Activate Environment.
Remove a virtual environment
In Solution Explorer, right-click the virtual environment and select Remove.
Visual Studio asks whether to remove or delete the virtual environment. Selecting Remove makes it unavailable to the project but leaves it on the file system. Selecting Delete both removes the environment from the project and deletes it from the file system. The base interpreter is unaffected.
View installed packages
In Solution Explorer, expand any specific environment's node to quickly view the packages that are installed in that environment (that is, you can import and use those packages in your code when the environment is active):
To install new packages, right-click the environment and select Manage Python Packages (or use the package button on the Python toolbar) to switch to the appropriate Packages tab in the Python Environments window. Once in the Packages tab, enter a search term (usually the package name) and Visual Studio displays matching packages.
Within Visual Studio, packages (and dependencies) for most environments are downloaded from the Python Package Index (PyPI), where you can also search for available packages. Visual Studio's status bar and output window show information about the install. To uninstall a package, right-click it and select Remove.
The conda package manager generally uses https://repo.continuum.io/pkgs/ as the default channel, but other channels are available. For more information, see Manage Channels (docs.conda.io).
Be aware that the displayed entries may not always be accurate, and installation and uninstallation may not be reliable or available. Visual Studio uses the pip package manager if available, and downloads and installs it when required. Visual Studio can also use the easy_install package manager. Packages installed using pip or easy_install from the command line are also displayed.
Also note that Visual Studio doesn't presently support using conda to install packages into a conda environment. Use conda from the command line instead.
Tip
A common situation where pip fails to install a package is when the package includes source code for native components in *.pyd files. Without the required version of Visual Studio installed, pip cannot compile these components. The error message displayed in this situation is error: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat. easy_install is often able to download pre-compiled binaries, and you can download a suitable compiler for older versions of Python from https://python.en.uptodown.com/windows/versions. For more details, see How to deal with the pain of "unable to find vcvarsallbat" on the Python tools team blog.
See also
Feedback
Submit and view feedback for