How To Ensure That Spyder Runs Within A Conda Environment?

I created a conda environment called testenv in Windows 10 that contains Python 3.6 and Spyder. I also installed Selenium using the method described in this answer. I checked tha

Solution 1:

I issued the command where spyder within the active environment to check the locations of Spyder's executables. This returned

C:\Anaconda3\Scripts\spyder.exeC:\Anaconda3\envs\testenv\Scripts\spyder.exe

So I started Spyder by typing the full path of the second entry, and my program ran without errors.

Solution 2:

You can also use the Windows based link that is generated in the Windows menu. The steps:

1. (in anaconda:) activate testenv

2. (in anaconda testenv:) conda install spyder

3. Look up the windows menu "recently added", find spyder (testenv) and [add that to taskbar] and / or [look up the file source location] and copy that to your desktop. In my case, the latter approach opened the directory C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Anaconda3 (64-bit) where the spyder links for any of my environments could be found; you can then copy them to your desktop for a direct start without the need to open anaconda prompt.