IDA + Windows + system python 2.7.11

In case you:

  • are running IDA on Windows
  • are using the system’s Python (as opposed to the bundled Python distribution, that one can opt for at installation-time)
  • have installed the recently released Python 2.7.11

…you will have noticed that IDAPython fails to load the ‘site’ module and, consequently, IDAPython is not available.

As far as I understand, this is a Python installer issue, which I reported ( https://bugs.python.org/issue25824 ).
While waiting for feedback from the Python authors, we can already offer the two following solutions:

  1. remove Python 2.7.11 and pick an earlier version (2.7.10 is known to work)
  2. open regedit.exe, and rename the key:
    HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Python\PythonCore\2.7\PythonPath into
    HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Python\PythonCore\2.7-32\PythonPath

This post will be updated whenever more information becomes available on the Python side.
HTH!
(Thanks to Tamir Bahar, who reported this issue very early on!)