How to Install Tkinter in Python - With Example - in Windows 10 / Windows 11

Install Tkinter Step by Step with Code & Example

What is Tkinter?

Tkinter is a Python library that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit for creating and working with windows, buttons, menus, and various other GUI elements. It is one of the most commonly used GUI libraries for Python, allowing developers to build interactive and visually appealing desktop applications.

If you want to build GUI Applications with Python then Tkinter would be an indispensable library to learn.
Tkinter provides a toolkit to create windows, buttons, menus and several other GUI elements.
It is most certainly one of the most popular GUI libarries for Python.
You might have heard about another popular library, PyQT. It’s amazing as well.
Anyways, with the help of Tkinter you can quickly create applications for Windows & Linux OS.

Why is Tkinter used?

While there are other libraries to build GUI applications for Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android & iOS with Python, like PyQT, PySide, wxPython, PyGTK, Pygame & many others, Tkinter is immensely popular among Python developers to create applications for Windows.

How to install Tkinter in Python?

The best part about installing Tkinter is that it is already included in each Python setup package when you download Python from Python.org.

But if for some reason, your Tkinter package is corrupt then all you need to do is reinstall Python & instead of installing a fresh Python version, you can repair the current version that is already installed in your system.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you install Tkinter:

Open your browser of choice, Chrome, Firefox, etc.
Head over to https://python.org/downloads.
Choose the Python version setup that you want. According to your project or client’s requirement, it could be Python 3.8 or a latest version as well.
As of this article, current Python version is 3.11.4, but I would highly advise you to not install the latest version of Python, regardless of when you are reading this article.
Reason is quite simple…your project dependencies may not be compatible with the latest version of Python.
It is of utmost importance to download the version that is stable & most compatible with the libraries that you are using in your program.
Anyways, with that out of the way, simply download the Python version setup & double-click (or single-click if it is configured in your Windows PC) the setup file.
If you have Python installed in your system (same version that you just downloaded), then you’ll see multiple options like Modify, Repair & Uninstall.
If you have downloaded a different version of Python setup then you’ll see your usual options, like Upgrade & Customize Installation.
To install Tkinter again in your system, you need to click Repair OR click Customize Installation if setup version is different.
After that, simply follow the prompts & Tkinter will be repaired or reinstalled & you’ll be able to use it.
If it doesn’t work, then a better option would be to uninstall the currently installed Python & re-run Python setup.
You can uninstall Python in Windows from the Programs & Features from Control Panel.
While re-installing Python, you need to make sure that tc/tk & IDLE is checked ON.
And this is quite easily missed, Add to Path or Add Python to environment variables.

How to check if Tkinter is installed successfully

Open command prompt, either from start menu or run dialog box.
Now type: ⌨️ python & hit Enter key to access Python shell. 🐍
Now type: ⌨️ import tkinter & hit Enter key.
If the command is executed successfully then you have successfully installed Tkinter in your Python environment.
Below, I’ve shared an example code to further check if you are able to create simple GUI dialog box with Python tkinter library or not.