pywin32 not running on Python 3.14

[kristofmulier]

I'm trying to install pywin32 on Python 3.14.0a3. There seems to be no official release for Python 3.14 just yet, so I tried installing the latest master branch:

>pip install git+https://github.com/mhammond/pywin32.git

Collecting git+https://github.com/mhammond/pywin32.git
  Cloning https://github.com/mhammond/pywin32.git to c:\users\krist\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-f3fv8k2d
  Running command git clone --filter=blob:none --quiet https://github.com/mhammond/pywin32.git 'C:\Users\krist\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-req-build-f3fv8k2d'
  Resolved https://github.com/mhammond/pywin32.git to commit 0ea624e0c518dce7f1873667b8a0684e4fee77e6
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Building wheels for collected packages: pywin32
  Building wheel for pywin32 (pyproject.toml) ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error

  × Building wheel for pywin32 (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1004
  ╰─> [3349 lines of output]
      Building pywin32 3.14.308.1
      INFO:root:running bdist_wheel
      INFO:root:running build
      INFO:root:running build_py
      INFO:root:creating build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\afxres.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\commctrl.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\mmsystem.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\netbios.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\ntsecuritycon.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\pywin32_bootstrap.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\pywin32_testutil.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\pywintypes.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      INFO:root:copying win32\lib\rasutil.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-cpython-314\win32\lib
      
      [...]
      
      INFO:wheel:adding 'pywin32-308.1.dist-info/WHEEL'
      INFO:wheel:adding 'pywin32-308.1.dist-info/top_level.txt'
      INFO:wheel:adding 'pywin32-308.1.dist-info/RECORD'
      INFO:root:removing build\bdist.win-amd64\wheel
      -- distutils hack to expose all include & lib dirs
      -- orig compiler.include_dirs: ['C:\\Python314\\include', 'C:\\Python314\\Include']
      -- orig compiler.library_dirs: ['C:\\Python314\\libs', 'C:\\Python314', 'C:\\Python314\\PCbuild\\amd64', 'build\\temp.win-amd64-cpython-314\\Release']
      -- compiler.library_dirs: ['C:\\Python314\\libs', 'C:\\Python314', 'C:\\Python314\\PCbuild\\amd64', 'build\\temp.win-amd64-cpython-314\\Release', 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\BuildTools\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.39.33519\\lib\\x64', 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\NETFXSDK\\4.8\\lib\\um\\x64', 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\10\\lib\\10.0.22621.0\\ucrt\\x64', 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\10\\\\lib\\10.0.22621.0\\\\um\\x64']
      -- ATLMFC paths likely missing (Required for win32ui)
      Skipping axdebug: AXDebug no longer builds on 3.11 and up
      Skipping win32ui: The header 'afxres.h' can not be located.
      Skipping win32uiole: The header 'afxres.h' can not be located.
      Skipping dde: The header 'afxres.h' can not be located.
      Skipping Pythonwin: The header 'afxres.h' can not be located.
      Installing data files to build\bdist.win-amd64\wheel\.\
      Not executing post install script when not installing in Python itself (self.root=build\bdist.win-amd64\wheel)
      *** NOTE: The following extensions were NOT built/installed:
       axdebug: AXDebug no longer builds on 3.11 and up
       win32ui: The header 'afxres.h' can not be located.
       win32uiole: The header 'afxres.h' can not be located.
       dde: The header 'afxres.h' can not be located.
       Pythonwin: The header 'afxres.h' can not be located.
      For more details on installing the correct libraries and headers,
      please execute this script with no arguments (or see the docstring)
      *** Non-zero exit status. Missing for complete release build: ['win32ui', 'win32uiole', 'dde', 'Pythonwin']
      [end of output]

  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for pywin32
Failed to build pywin32
ERROR: ERROR: Failed to build installable wheels for some pyproject.toml based projects (pywin32)

My system is Windows 11.

[Avasam]

Looks like you're missing the "afxres.h" header which is part of the MFC library.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/17808015

As for Python 3.14 itself. I don't plan on adding build and tests to the CI until around beta 1 (eta: 2025-05-06).

[kristofmulier]

Thank you @Avasam ,
I'll wait until the beta 1 release then before switching to Python 3.14

[Avasam]

Python 3.14b1 is out ! And we now produce 3.14 wheels as actions artefact you can try out before the next pywin32 release.

[kristofmulier]

Thanks @Avasam ,
Any idea when the next pywin32 release will be out (and have support for Python 3.14) ?

[Avasam]

There's currently an issue with beta-1 specific to building C extensions for Windows for non-threaded Python on GitHub: python/cpython#133779 (comment)

IIUC local builds should still work. (Or at least can be made to work)
@mhammond FYI if you end up wanting to make a release before that's fixed, you can just disable the 3.14 matrix from the builds.

[Avasam]

I opened #2511 If there's any runtime issue specific to Python 3.14 that's spotted until 3.14 wheels are published, it can be commented on that PR.