This problem has been solved. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. Below is a summary I sent to Tim Golden, whose reply led us to the solution in this case.
Tim, Thank you for your help - your suggestions led us to the problem. Turns out that another instance of Python *was* installed, not as part of OEM software, but by a digital camera (Califone) that is being used in some of our classrooms. The suggestion to look for environmental variables was the key - on the PCs where we were having the problem, there was a variable starting with PYTHON ... which pointed to the camera software. Once the camera was uninstalled, Python 3.5.2 worked just fine. Thanks again! On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 11:11 AM, Jed Mack <ohiom...@gmail.com> wrote: > We are having a problem running Python 3.5.2 on Windows 10 x64 computers, > which are members of a school network. > > > > The program seems to install correctly, but when we try to run the program > it stops and give an error message saying: > > > > *Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: unable to load the file system codec* > > *Traceback (most recent call last):* > > * File "C:\Program Files\Python35\lib\encodings\__init__.py", line 31, > in< module>* > > *zipimport.ZipImportError: can't find module 'codecs'* > > > > > > On a Windows 7 PCs, on the same network, the program runs with no problems. > > > > We have no one here who is familiar with Python. Do you have any > additional information on this error, and suggestions for fixing it? > > > > We have a teacher who needs this program on Windows 10 PCs for students to > use beginning January 3. > > > > Thanks, > > Jed Mack > > > > -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list