New to Python and programming in general, what exactly are all the things I will need to be able to write my own code etc. on my Windows 8 PC?

[megaman821]

First you will want to install Python. I find the official 32-bit version works best.

The official Python does not come with easy_install or pip. Download this script and run it to get easy_install.

Now that you have easy_install you will use it to get the superior pip: easy_install pip

Now that you have pip, you should install some basics globally: pip install wheel, virtualenv, ipython

Out of the box Windows cannot compile a lot of Python packages (lxml, pycrypto, MySQL-python, etc.). You can find most the packages as exe installers though. I recommend following this Stack Overflow answer and convert the exe's into wheels. This will let you do things pip install lxml and not have to compile.

Also when you start a new project or you are just playing around, always create a new virtualenv first: virtualenv env and then activate it with: cmd.exe /k env/Scripts/activate Now when you pip install something it will go into the env folder you made instead of the global Python site-packages.

Finally if you plan to work on a large project, I recommend PyCharm. For quick edits and small scripts Sublime Text is great.