Posted on December 28, 2022 (Updated on July 10, 2025)

IDLE (Python GUI) Will Not Open

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Why is Python IDLE not opening?

Right-click the “. idlerc” folder and select Properties. Uncheck the “Hidden” attribute if it’s active and apply the new settings. Test the change by editing a script tool or opening Python IDLE again.

How do I open Python IDLE GUI?

File menu (Shell and Editor)



Open a list of recent files. Click one to open it. Show functions, classes, and methods in the current Editor file in a tree structure. In the shell, open a module first.

Does Tkinter work in IDLE?

IDLE is written in Python using Tkinter, and it provides us with not only an editing environment for Python, but also a great example of Tkinter in action.

How do I open Python IDLE in Windows 11?

Quote from video: We open this through our search feature in opening the idle. For our latest version of python for me that is python 3.10. Through this we can just begin entering python.

How do I get Python IDLE back?

Quote from video: You can just type alt p to get previous alt P to get the one before that and alter P to get the 1 even before that. And you can type alt n to go to the next. And so on.

Which GUI is best for Python?

Here is a look at the 10 best Python libraries for GUI:

  • PyQt5. Developed by Riverbank Computing, PyQt5 is one of the most popular Python frameworks for GUI.
  • Tkinter. Another top Python library for GUI is Tkinter, which is an open-source Python Graphic User Interface library.
  • Kivy.
  • PySimpleGUI.
  • Libavg.
  • PyForms.
  • PySide2.
  • Wax.

What is the easiest GUI for Python?

Python Tkinter



Tkinter is the standard built-in GUI library for Python, and, with over 41,000 stars on GitHub, it’s the most popular Python GUI framework. It’s a fast and easy-to-use Python GUI library, making it the go-to library for building a Python GUI application.
Nov 10, 2021

How do I open Python IDLE from terminal?

Starting IDLE on Mac

  1. In a Terminal window, type python. This will start the Python shell. The prompt for that is >>>
  2. At the Python shell prompt type import idlelib.idle.
  3. This will start the IDLE IDE.


How do I enable IDLE in Python?

You can also open IDLE directly from your Python script file. Right click the file, then choose “Edit with IDLE”. Rather than going through the “Run…” menu, learn to use F5 (on some systems, Fn + F5) to run your script.

Why is my pip Python not working?

A “pip: command not found” error occurs when you fail to properly install the package installer for Python (pip) needed to run Python on your computer. To fix it, you will either need to re-install Python and check the box to add Python to your PATH or install pip on your command line.
Aug 30, 2022

What can I use instead of Python IDLE?

There are more than 25 alternatives to IDLE for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD and Android. The best alternative is Eclipse, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like IDLE are PyCharm, IPython, Light Table and NINJA-IDE.
Jul 27, 2020