Python 3.13.4 on Windows is broken

[MehdiChinoune]

Description:
While trying to setup a CI job on Windows ARM64, I found out that the python installed is the free threaded one, unless there is an issue elsewhere.

  C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\Python\3.13.4\arm64\include\Python.h(51): fatal error C1189: #error:  "The limited API is not currently supported in the free-threaded build"

It occurs when trying to install psutil with pip

pip install psutil

Action version:
Specify the action version

Platform:

• Ubuntu
• macOS
• Windows

Runner type:

• Hosted
• Self-hosted

Tools version:
3.13

Repro steps:

pip install psutil

Expected behavior:
Get the standard python.

Actual behavior:
free-threaded python was installed.

[aparnajyothi-y]

Hello @MehdiChinoune, Thank you for creating this issue and we will get back to you once we have some feedback on this :)

[andife]

should relate to https://discuss.python.org/t/heads-up-3-13-5-release-coming-soon/94535

[MehdiChinoune]

So the issue comes from the upstream.

[henryiii]

Yes, 3.13.4 is broken on Windows, it reports that it's the free-threaded version when it's not. 3.13.5 is required (and it was rushed out to fix this), but setup-python doesn't have windows binaries for it (edit: now it does but they aren't cached in the runner images, 3.13.4 sadly is). Maybe setup-python could skip the 3.13.4 patch releases on Windows, and resolve to either 3.13.3 or 3.13.5 whenever binaries get built?

(FYI, this affects all Windows, not just ARM)