python embedded version and request package

Question

I have an isolated Wintel host not able to pip or etc, which equals to have network opened to 'internet'.
I downloaded python embedded form python.org (on other machine), copied and unzipped it to O:\xip\Python on isolated machine.
Now it looks like:

libcrypto-1_1.dll
libffi-7.dll
libssl-1_1.dll
LICENSE.txt
pyexpat.pyd
python.cat
python.exe
python3.dll
python38.dll
python38.zip
python38._pth
pythonw.exe
select.pyd
sqlite3.dll
unicodedata.pyd
vcruntime140.dll
winsound.pyd
_asyncio.pyd
_bz2.pyd
_ctypes.pyd
_decimal.pyd
_elementtree.pyd
_hashlib.pyd
_lzma.pyd
_msi.pyd
_multiprocessing.pyd
_overlapped.pyd
_queue.pyd
_socket.pyd
_sqlite3.pyd
_ssl.pyd

i have PyPI requests package, did python setup.py install it on other machine and i copied \build\lib\ directory (which appears) into isolated machine O:\xip\Python\build\lib\requests\
my PATH have O:\xip\Python;O:\xip\Python\build\lib
my PYTHONPATH have O:\xip\Python\python38.zip;O:\xip\Python\build\lib;O:\xip\Python\build\lib\requests
When i go to python console and run import requests i get no module named 'requests'

1. Should I unzip this python38.zip?
2. should i have something more in PATH or PYTHONPATH?
3. Should i copy something more from machine where i did install of request package?
Any ideas what is wrong here?

Answer 1

The embedded distribution does not use environment vars. See here: Python Issue 28245

You should edit the python._pth file and put your additional paths there.

Alternatively, you could also extend sys.path before attempting the import.