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Python Script to Standalone Executable (with Icon)

Last updated on 6 April 2015

When releasing tools, and proof of concepts, to the industry and more often to clients, I find I need to provide a standalone executable that can be run without installing Python and any required modules.

To accomplish this I use py2exe . While other options exist (for example pyinstaller) personally I have found py2exe quicker and easier to use once a few stumbling blocks were overcome. I therefore decided to write a short post describing how I setup and use py2exe for when laptop rebuild time comes around and in the hope it will be useful to others.

First, at the time of writing, py2exe does not support creating a single executable using 64 bit Python, throwing the error:

error: bundle-files 1 not yet supported on win64

So step 1 is to install 32 bit Python (being careful not to overwrite your existing 64 bit installation) and 32 bit versions of any non standard library modules that are required by your script.

Next you need to install py2exe itself. The project home page points to the SourceForge project page. Ensure you download the 32 bit version for the version of Python you have installed.

Now you are ready to create the script that will create your standalone executable. There are many options available, but I find the following minimal script very effective. This script will create a single executable (‘bundle_files’) for script.py.

from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe, sys

sys.argv.append('py2exe')

setup(
        options = {
                    'py2exe': {'bundle_files': 1,
                               'compressed': True
                              }
                  },
        console = [{
                    'script': "script.py"
                  }],
        zipfile = None,
)

The one additional option I sometimes use is to add a custom icon to the executable. To do this I first create my icon image (256×256 pixels) in an image editor and export the required sizes (16×16, 32×32, 48×48, 256×256) in the png image format. I then use png2ico to create a .ico file, note the order in which you add the different size images is important it must be largest to smallest otherwise the icon may not be displayed at all! i.e:

png2ico favicon.ico icon_256.png icon_48.png icon_32.png icon_16.png

With the icon (favicon.ico) created the following script can be used to turn script.py into a standalone executable with an icon.

from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe, sys

sys.argv.append('py2exe')

setup(
        options = {
                    'py2exe': {'bundle_files': 1,
                               'compressed': True
                              }
                  },
        console = [{
                    'script': "script.py",
                    'icon_resources': [(0, 'favicon.ico')]
                  }],
        zipfile = None,
)

Once the setup.py script above has been written, the standalone executable can be created simply by running it using your 32 bit Python installation (my 32 bit installation is at ‘C:\Python27_x86\python’):

C:\Python27_x86\python setup.py

By default the executable will be created in the “dist” directory.


As always, if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to get in touch.

Published inTools and Techniques

One Comment

  1. Trust Endee Kele Trust Endee Kele

    Thanks for insightful writeup.
    However, can you write this for python 3.6.5?
    It will be appreciated.

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