App execution aliases don't get properly installed on their own?

[Jackenmen]

Background

I’m not entirely sure why, but despite having app execution aliases (afaik) correctly configured (I’m pretty sure I’ve never touched this configuration manually on this system - this is how it looks after I installed the install manager), the Microsoft Store opens whenever I run Python. Disabling and reenabling the python/python3 execution aliases solves it. This is what I've done on a clone of the VM where I experienced this problem, to still have the ability to provide more debug information, in case there's anything specific you would want me to test.

I think it could make sense to include this bit of information in the pymanager install --configure, if it's some sort of Windows issue that can just happen to people. Judging by https://docs.python.org/dev/using/windows.html#troubleshooting, it seems like it might be.

Screenshots of App execution aliases

Despite this, running Python just opens the store (which correctly tells me it’s already installed and I did, in fact, install it through the MS Store):

Details

pymanager install --configure shows the following, despite the Settings app (shown in the above screenshots) showing a seemingly correct app execution aliases configuration:

As an additional note, this system had Python 3.11 installed on it in the past through the python.org installer, though I already uninstalled it (I think I did that before I installed the install manager, though I am not certain).

This system is a VM I use to test stuff on Windows 11 very occasionally, so it's generally pretty clean. It only had 24H2 and 25H2 updates installed recently because I actually booted the VM up for once 😄

[zooba]

Would adding a line "If the items are already enabled, you may need to disable and re-enable them." before the "Open Settings now" bit meet your expectation?

[Jackenmen]

Yes.

Separately, though, I do wonder whether there's a reason pymanager --configure can't fix the aliases for the user automatically? Is there no good way to do it programmatically, like e.g. max PATH length fix?

[zooba]

No, Windows decided that these are exclusively user preferences, and apps are not allowed to override user preferences. Which would be fine if there weren't occasional bugs leading to inconsistent state, like this. For the most part it works fine.