Why would I add python to PATH

Question

I am a beginner in python, and I have downloaded python from this link. Now when I downloaded python 3, then I started the installation and I got this image:

Why do I have to "Add Python 3.5 to PATH"? What is PATH? Why is it not selected by default?

Answer 1

Kindly be informed that the PATH is an environment variable in Windows. It will inform the command line on which folders to look in when attempting to find a file. If you didn't add Python to PATH then you would call it from the command line like this:

C:/Python27/Python some_python_script.py

So, if you want to add it to PATH, you can perform this:

python some_python_script.py

It will work for you as the command line will look over all the PATH folders for python and find it in the folder that the Python installer has added there.