Difference between web-based and executable installers for Python 3 on Windows

Question

The downloads page for Python for Windows offers a "web-based" installer and an "executable" installer. What's the difference?

Answer 1

This applies to all programs, not just Python:

An executable installer has every component of the program you're installing locally in the installer itself. This means that you can download the installer on a computer with internet access, copy it over to a computer without internet access and install it there. This is useful if you're installing network card drivers.

Web-based installers are small programs that when you start them, download the necessary files and install them directly. This means that the installer is very small.

If you just want to install python on your local computer which has web-access, it doesn't really matter which one you pick.

Installer size comparison