The same question also posted here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51820473/right-way-to-use-zipimport-zipimport-zipimporterror-not-a-zip-file
I have managed to use [this module][1] without installation - just import it from path to use , import sys url = 'https://example.com' sys.path.insert(0, r'C:\Users\i\Downloads\you-get-0.4.1128\src') # from you_get import common common.any_download(url, info_only=True)#NoneType It seems possible in Python to use `zipimport` to directly use the zip archive of the module without extraction, I wonder what is the right way to use `zipimport`, a simple trying like the following just gives the exception . I downloaded the file from [here][2] , the file `C:\Users\i\Downloads\you-get-0.4.1128.zip` does exist and isn't corrupted. >>> import zipimport >>> zipimport.zipimporter(r'C:\Users\i\Downloads\you-get-0.4.1128.zip') Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#1>", line 1, in <module> zipimport.zipimporter(r'C:\Users\i\Downloads\you-get-0.4.1128.zip') zipimport.ZipImportError: not a Zip file: 'C:\\Users\\i\\Downloads\\you-get-0.4.1128.zip' >>> [1]: https://github.com/soimort/you-get/releases [2]: https://github.com/soimort/you-get/archive/v0.4.1128.zip -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list