Poetry 2.1.0 and 2.1.1 pick not-really-installed WindowsApps python on Windows 11

Description

After installing poetry 2.1.x I cannot run commands like "poetry env use ..." or "poetry new ...". I do not have a working "python" in PATH so WindowsApps version is used - it just opens Windows Store when called directly. For reasons I have the "py" Windows launcher working, but no real "python" command in PATH.

Apparently before 2.1.x Poetry used the environment that it was installed to to do Poetry things and it worked for me really well, so I'm reporting this as a bug.

Thank you for your work :)

Workarounds

I guess I could add some real python to PATH, but I didn't have to do that until now.

Poetry Installation Method

pip

Operating System

Windows 11

Poetry Version

Poetry (version 2.1.1)

Poetry Configuration

cache-dir = "[my_personal_path]"
data-dir = "[my_personal_path]"
installer.max-workers = null
installer.no-binary = null
installer.only-binary = null
installer.parallel = true
installer.re-resolve = true
keyring.enabled = true
python.installation-dir = "{data-dir}\\python"
requests.max-retries = 0
solver.lazy-wheel = true
system-git-client = false
virtualenvs.create = true
virtualenvs.in-project = null
virtualenvs.options.always-copy = false
virtualenvs.options.no-pip = false
virtualenvs.options.system-site-packages = false
virtualenvs.path = "{cache-dir}\\virtualenvs"
virtualenvs.prompt = "{project_name}-py{python_version}"
virtualenvs.use-poetry-python = false

Python Sysconfig

No response

Example pyproject.toml

Poetry Runtime Logs

INFO: Could not find files for the given pattern(s).

Stack trace:

14 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\cleo\application.py:327 in run
exit_code = self._run(io)

13 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\poetry\console\application.py:260 in _run
exit_code = super()._run(io)

12 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\cleo\application.py:431 in _run
exit_code = self._run_command(command, io)

11 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\cleo\application.py:473 in _run_command
raise error

10 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\cleo\application.py:457 in _run_command
exit_code = command.run(io)

9 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\cleo\commands\base_command.py:117 in run
return self.execute(io) or 0

8 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\cleo\commands\command.py:61 in execute
return self.handle()

7 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\poetry\console\commands\new.py:86 in handle
return self._init_pyproject(

6 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\poetry\console\commands\init.py:176 in _init_pyproject
+ Python.get_preferred_python(config, self.io).minor_version.to_string()

5 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\poetry\utils\env\python\manager.py:277 in get_preferred_python
f"Found: {active_python.executable}", verbosity=Verbosity.VERBOSE

4 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\poetry\utils\env\python\manager.py:171 in executable
return cast(Path, self._python.interpreter)

3 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\findpython\python.py:80 in interpreter
self._interpreter = Path(self._get_interpreter())

2 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\findpython\python.py:217 in _get_interpreter
return _run_script(str(self.executable), script).strip()

1 ~\nosync\code\python\poetry_venv\Lib\site-packages\findpython\python.py:23 in _run_script
return subprocess.run(

CalledProcessError

Command '['C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\python.EXE', '-EsSc', 'import sys; print(sys.executable)']' returned non-zero exit status 9009.

at ~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\subprocess.py:579 in run
575│ # We don't call process.wait() as .exit does that for us.
576│ raise
577│ retcode = process.poll()
578│ if check and retcode:
→ 579│ raise CalledProcessError(retcode, process.args,
580│ output=stdout, stderr=stderr)
581│ return CompletedProcess(process.args, retcode, stdout, stderr)
582│
583│

Start by tracing Python selection from poetry/console/commands/new.py and init.py through poetry/utils/env/python/manager.py into findpython/python.py. Reproduce the Windows 11 failure with a WindowsApps python alias and a working py launcher, then verify that commands such as poetry env use and poetry new no longer select the non-working interpreter.