Tkinter does not run in 3.13.0

[litiegang1989]

Bug report

Bug description:

I can not use Tkinter in the version of 3.13.0, even if I just import tkinter will have a wrong. I try to run the program on two different laptops, and have the same problem.

from tkinter import *

Process finished with exit code -1073741819 (0xC0000005)


### CPython versions tested on:

3.13

### Operating systems tested on:

Windows

[terryjreedy]

Works fine for me when installed with the new python.org installer.

C:\Users\Terry>py
Python 3.13.0 (tags/v3.13.0:60403a5, Oct  7 2024, 09:38:07) [MSC v.1941 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from tkinter import *
>>> dir()
['ACTIVE', 'ALL', 'ANCHOR', 'ARC', 'BASELINE', 'BEVEL', 'BOTH', 'BOTTOM', 'BROWSE', 'BUTT', 'BaseWidget', 'BitmapImage', 'BooleanVar', 'Button', 'CASCADE', 'CENTER', 'CHAR', 'CHECKBUTTON', 'CHORD', 'COMMAND', 'CURRENT', 'CallWrapper', 
<...>
'image_names', 'image_types', 'mainloop']
>>>

Please give exact details of how you got your python binary and exact how you ran it.

Note: the triple backticks should enclose code and output but not the template headings and responses.

[colesbury]

Did you install the free-threaded binaries? Tkinter is broken on free-threaded Windows 3.13t: #118973

[terryjreedy]

I have been running IDLE on locally built free-threading builds since March 15 this year, so this is a packaging issue.

Python 3.14.0a0 experimental free-threading build (heads/main:440632adb29, Oct  9 2024, 10:25:28) [MSC v.1941 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import tkinter
>>> dir()
['__builtins__', '__cached__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__', 'tkinter']

[joshburnett]

I see this issue when running Python from within a venv:

Python 3.13.0 (tags/v3.13.0:60403a5, Oct  7 2024, 09:38:07) [MSC v.1941 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import tkinter
>>> root = tkinter.Tk()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<python-input-2>", line 1, in <module>
    root = tkinter.Tk()
  File "C:\Users\jburnett1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 2459, in __init__
    self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className, interactive, wantobjects, useTk, sync, use)
              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
_tkinter.TclError: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following directories:
    C:/Users/MY_USER_NAME/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python313/lib/tcl8.6 C:/Users/jburnett1/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/lib/tcl8.6 C:/Users/MY_USER_NAMEAppData/Local/Programs/lib/tcl8.6 C:/Users/MY_USER_NAME/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/library C:/Users/MY_USER_NAME/AppData/Local/Programs/library C:/Users/MY_USER_NAME/AppData/Local/Programs/tcl8.6.14/library C:/Users/MY_USER_NAME/AppData/Local/tcl8.6.14/library

Running in the base Python install works OK. I'm not running the free-threaded build.

I'm testing on Windows 11, though I've seen a report of this on Windows 10 as well.

Also worth noting that I ran into this issue with the binary from the python.org installer as well as installing Python via UV.

My python.org-installed version is installed for just my user, and I do see the above-mentioned init.tcl file in C:\Users\MY_USER_NAME\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\tcl\tcl8.6 but this directory is not listed in the traceback as one of the ones being searched.

[litiegang1989]

I download the installer from the official site.I test again on Windows 11, If I install with the option clicked, it will have this problem. If I install without download free-threaded binaries, tkinter can run normally.

[terryjreedy]

@joshburnett Please open a separate issue for failures, if any, that only occur with venv. Reference threads on discuss.python.org if this is claimed.

EDIT: Robin Becker opened #125235. Fix in 3.13.1.