Update blocked pyenv update on Windows

Windows

Python

pyenv

Update pyenv version cache on Windows when the pyenv update command fails.

Published

May 29, 2026

Problem

As of today May 29th 2026, on Windows 11, the pyenv update command fails with a “command is not supported” error:

pyenv update

:: [Info] ::  Mirror: https://www.python.org/ftp/python
C:\Users\xxx\.pyenv\pyenv-win\libexec\pyenv-update.vbs(279, 9) htmlfile: Cette commande n'est pas prise en charge.

This prevents updating the pyenv version cache, making new Python versions unavailable for conveniently creating a new Python virtual environment.

The root cause is that Windows 11 no longer supports the VBScript used in pyenv-update.vbs (see issue #715).

Update pyenv package

Check the current pyenv version:

pyenv --version

pyenv 3.1.1

Latest Python versions available in the pyenv cache:

pyenv install --list

...
3.14.1
3.14.2
...
3.14.3
3.15.0a7
...

Attempt to update the pyenv package to get the latest fixes:

pip install --upgrade pyenv-win --target "$HOME\.pyenv"

Collecting pyenv-win
  Using cached pyenv_win-3.1.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (24 kB)
Using cached pyenv_win-3.1.1-py3-none-any.whl (3.6 MB)
Installing collected packages: pyenv-win
Successfully installed pyenv-win-3.1.1

Check the pyenv version:

pyenv --version

pyenv 3.1.1

Check the pyenv cache:

pyenv install --list

...
3.10.1
3.10.5
...
3.11.0b3
3.11.0b4

The pyenv Python version cache is now out of date compared to my previous local cache. The pip-installed package ships a very outdated Python version list from 2022 (latest pyenv-win from pypi) !

The fix for the pyenv update command is not yet released at the time of writing (see pull request #724) so the pyenv version cache needs to be refreshed with a workaround.

Update the version cache manually

Instead of applying an unreleased fix or a custom workaround from the issue thread, temporarily update the cache with a simple file replacement to get a fresh list of available Python versions.

Get the path of the cache file on the local pyenv installation:
```
Get-Command pyenv | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Source
```
```
C:\Users\xxx\.pyenv\pyenv-win\bin\pyenv.ps1
```
The cache file is located at C:\Users\xxx\.pyenv\pyenv-win\.versions_cache.xml
Download the cache file from the pyenv-win repository
Replace the contents of the local cache file with the downloaded version.
Check that the list of available Python versions is up to date:
```
pyenv install --list
```
```
...
3.14.4
3.14.5
...
3.15.0b1
...
```

Testing downloading the latest Python version

pyenv install 3.14.5

:: [Info] ::  Mirror: https://www.python.org/ftp/python
:: [Downloading] ::  3.14.5 ...
:: [Downloading] ::  From https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.14.5/python-3.14.5-amd64.exe
:: [Downloading] ::  To   C:\Users\xxx\.pyenv\pyenv-win\install_cache\python-3.14.5-amd64.exe
:: [Installing] ::  3.14.5 ...
:: [Info] :: completed! 3.14.5
...

Check available Python versions on the system:

pyenv versions

...
  3.14.5
...

Conclusion

Until an official pyenv fix is released, manually replacing .versions_cache.xml with the latest version from the repository is a simple and reliable workaround.