Lost my python.exe in Pycharm with Anaconda3

Question

Everything was working perfectly until today, when for some reason my python.exe file disappeared from the Project Interpreter in Pycharm.

It was located in C:\users\my_name\Anaconda3\python.exe, and for some reason I can't find it anywhere!

Yet, all the packages are here (in the site-packages folder), and only the C:\users\my_name\Anaconda3\pythonw.exe is available.

With the latest however, some packages I installed on top of those available in Anaconda3 won't be recognized.

Therefore, how to get back the python.exe file?

Answer 1

I just had the same issue and found out that Avast removed it because it thought it was a threat. I found it in Avast -> Protection -> Virus Chest. And from there, you have the option to restore it.

Answer 2

The answer repeats the comment to the question.

I had the same issue once after Anaconda update - python.exe was missing. It was Anaconda 3 installed to Program Files folder by MS Visual Studio (Python 3.6 on Windows10 x64).

To solve the problem I manually copied python.exe file from the most fresh python package available (folder pkgs then folder like python-3.6.8-h9f7ef89_7).