How to install older version

[DanV]

I'm a newbie with the most basic question. I want Python installed on an old Win7 laptop. I downloaded version 3.8.15 and 7zip to unpack it. I now have a Python-3.8.15.tar file. (88.8MB) It looks like I still need to install. Win7 doesn't recognize .tar extension. Do I need to download something else to enable the install?

[bowlofred]

3.8.15 (or 3.8.20) will be a bit more of a chore. The last version of python with an official windows installer for Win7 is 3.8.10. https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-3810/

You're already way behind, so I'm guessing that not having the last few security releases of 3.8 won't matter much. But the install should be much simpler.

[snippsat]

An alternative instead of running a old version is to use web alternatives that have full setup with Editor/Terminal and pip to install stuff.
Eg CodeSpaces | AWS Cloud9
Here a screen of my test of CodeSpaces free,as you see Python 3.12 and has pip,it also can generate code guess with Copilot.