[solved via workaround] pywintypes38.dll can't be found (python3.8 on windows 7 ultimate)

Problem

When running compile.bat, I get the following warning:

4437 WARNING: lib not found: pywintypes38.dll dependency of C:\program files\python38\lib\site-packages\win32\win32evtlog.pyd
4453 WARNING: lib not found: pywintypes38.dll dependency of C:\program files\python38\lib\site-packages\win32\win32api.pyd
4468 WARNING: lib not found: pywintypes38.dll dependency of C:\program files\python38\lib\site-packages\win32\win32process.pyd

The compilation completes, but when running main.exe it errors with this message:

[backtrace omitted since can't copy-paste from my vm]
ImportError: DLL load failed while importing win32process: The specified module could not be found.
[544] Failed to execute script main

Solution/Workaround

I found the missing pywintypes38.dll in C:\progam files\python38\lib\site-packages\pywin32_system32\pywintypes38.dll and copied it to C:\windows\system32, then I ran compile.bat again to be on the safe side and it worked. Worked, meaning no warning when running compile and executing the main.exe does not result in a crash.

How to reproduce

I'm running windows 7 x64 Ultimate in a libvirt/qemu VM, installed latest python 3.8 (for all users, i. e. in C:\program files\...) and ran this command as admin to fulfil the dependencies:

pip install pyinstaller pywin32

Not sure if it's a bug in pip, the pywin32 package or a combination of these with win7 ultimate. Mentioning this workaround in the README would be sufficient IMO as I'm not sure this can be fixed from within this project.

(Note, this also happened on my win10 eval vm, but I did not report it then, because I didn't take notes when fixing it.)

fkie-cad / RoAMer