1. Start a command line with admin rights.

2. python -m pip install pywin32

3. C:\Program Files\Stackless36\Scripts>python pywin32_postinstall.py -install The path C:\Program Files\Stackless36\ should be replaced with the path at which your Python version is installed.

4. Test (admin rights optional) using python -c "import win32com" or python speak.py

   where speak.py consists of this text:

   import win32com.client
   
   speaker = win32com.client.Dispatch("SAPI.SpVoice")
   speaker.Speak("It works. Hoorah!")
   

Working fine on Python 3.6.4 Stackless 3.1b3 060516 (v3.6.4-slp:9557b2e530, Dec 21 2017, 15:23:10) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32. Vanilla CPython hangs out here:

C:\Users\C\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32>python.exe
Python 3.6.5 (v3.6.5:f59c0932b4, Mar 28 2018, 16:07:46) [MSC v.1900 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import win32com.client
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'win32com'
>>> exit()

C:\Users\C\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32>python.exe -m pip install pywin32
Collecting pywin32
  Cache entry deserialization failed, entry ignored
  Downloading https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/d4/2d/b927e61c4a2b0aaaab72c8cb97cf748c319c399d804293164b0c43380d5f/pywin32-223-cp36-cp36m-win32.whl (8.3MB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 8.3MB 50kB/s
Installing collected packages: pywin32
Successfully installed pywin32-223
You are using pip version 9.0.3, however version 10.0.1 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'python -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.

Try using easy_install:

pip install setuptools
easy_install pypiwin32

Information provided by @Gord

Since September 2019 pywin32 should be installed via PyPI which ensures that the latest version (currently version 304) is installed. This is done via the pip command

pip install pywin32

If you wish to get an older version the sourceforge link below would probably have the desired version, if not you can use the command, where xxx is the version you require, e.g. 300

pip install pywin32==xxx

This differs to the pip command in another comment and in an old edit of this answer in that pypiwin32 installs an outdated version (namely 223)

Browsing the docs I see no reason for these commands to not work for all python3.x versions, I am unsure on python2.7 and below so you would have to try them and if they do not work then the solutions below will work.

Probably now undesirable solutions but certainly still valid as of September 2019

There is no version of specific version ofwin32api. You have to get the pywin32module which currently cannot be installed via pip. It is only available from this link at the moment.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/Build%20220/

The install does not take long and it pretty much all done for you. Just make sure to get the right version of it depending on your python version :)

Also it can be installed from this GitHub repository as provided in comments by @Heath

There is a a new option as well: get it via pip! There is a package pypiwin32 with wheels available, so you can just install with: pip install pypiwin32!

Edit: Per comment from @movermeyer, the main project now publishes wheels at pywin32, and so can be installed with pip install pywin32

This is resolve my case as found on Where to find the win32api module for Python?

pip install pypiwin32

I can't reproduce this now, but I'll take a shot, as I had a similar problem some time ago and was able to resolve it by this solution: import win32api error in Python 2.6

I Basically copied pythoncom27.dll and pywintypes27.dll from Python27/Lib/site-packages/pywin32_system32 to Python27/Lib/site-packages/win32 ... Or something to that effect.

Sorry for the vagueness - but it helped me (found the link in my bookmarks).

Hope it helps!

Spoiler alert!!!

Applied #2.2. (from below) to the original .whls, and published them on [GitHub]: CristiFati/Prebuilt-Binaries - (master) Prebuilt-Binaries/PyWin32/v225 (win_amd64, win32 for Python 3.8).

After installing (one of) them, existing code should work OOTB (with respect to this issue).

Install steps:

1. Download the .whl that matches your Python architecture (064bit, 032bit - for more details on getting Python architecture, check [SO]: How do I determine if my python shell is executing in 32bit or 64bit? (@CristiFati's answer) (the question is about OSX, but other platforms are covered as well)), it will most likely be 64bit (win_amd64), from the above URL.
   For example, I downloaded it in L:\Downloads

2. Invoke the PIP installer on it ([SO]: How to install a package for a specific Python version on Windows 10? (@CristiFati's answer)). Something like:

   (${path_to_your})python.exe -m pip ${path_to_the_downloaded_pywin32_whl}
   

   Example:

   "e:\Work\Dev\VEnvs\py_pc064_03.08.00_test0\Scripts\python.exe" -m pip "L:\Downloads\pywin32-225-cp38-cp38-win_amd64.whl"
   

The problem has been reported on [GitHub]: mhammond/pywin32 - python 3.8.

The above URL references 2 more:

• [Python 3.8.Docs]: What’s New In Python 3.8 - Changes in the Python API which states (emphasis is mine):

  • DLL dependencies for extension modules and DLLs loaded with ctypes on Windows are now resolved more securely. Only the system paths, the directory containing the DLL or PYD file, and directories added with add_dll_directory() are searched for load-time dependencies. Specifically, PATH and the current working directory are no longer used, and modifications to these will no longer have any effect on normal DLL resolution.

• [Python 3.Docs]: os.add_dll_directory(path) which states (emphasis still mine):

  This search path is used when resolving dependencies for imported extension modules (the module itself is resolved through sys.path), and also by ctypes.

In the same time, I did some digging of my own and discovered that (for win32api.pyd) it's pywintypes38.dll (which is a dependency for the .pyds) that is not found (I also specified this in a comment on the issue).

Solutions (actually workarounds (more or less) until an official and backwards compatible fix is released):

1. Force pywintypes38.dll load by importing it (as it's also a Python module and in this scenario it doesn't fall under the above rule) before any PyWin32 module:

   import pywintypes
   import win32api
   

   If working with COM, you'd need import pythoncom

2. Adding pywin32_system32 to the .dll search paths (following the new model from above). There are multiple ways:

   1. v-python's comment from the issue URL which provides a small snippet (I didn't test it)

   2. I also submitted [GitHub]: mhammond/pywin32 - Support for Python 3.8, where I do everything in the pywin32.pth file ("executed" when the interpreter starts, so no changes needed for existing code). Unfortunately, there is a problem with the AppVeyor automated tests which fail (but for some other reasons), so it has been stuck there for a while. Note that in the meantime, the PR was closed and another (similar) approach was pushed. Note that v226 (released on 20191110) which contains the fix, does not work on VirtualEnv ([SO]: PyWin32 (226) and virtual environments (@CristiFati's answer)).
      Anyway, applying the changes locally ⁽¹⁾ (on both my Python VirtualEnvs), solved the problem (on one, and didn't break the other):

      [cfati@CFATI-5510-0:e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q058631512]> sopr.bat
      ### Set shorter prompt to better fit when pasted in StackOverflow (or other) pages ###
      
      [prompt]> "e:\Work\Dev\VEnvs\py_064_03.07.03_test0\Scripts\python.exe" -c "import win32api"
      
      [prompt]> "e:\Work\Dev\VEnvs\py_064_03.08.00_test0\Scripts\python.exe" -c "import win32api"
      
      [prompt]>
      

   3. Other ways like copying the .dlls (e.g. in %SystemRoot%\System32), or SymLinking them, but (personally) I wouldn't recommend those

Check:

• [SO]: Can't import dll module in Python (@CristiFati's answer) for more details on .dll loading (via CTypes)

• [SO]: Is the function os. add_dll_directory() adding directories permanently? (@CristiFati's answer)

• [SO]: Discover missing module using command-line ("DLL load failed" error) (@CristiFati's answer)

Update #0

[PyPI]: pywin32 227 (which addresses this issue), was published on 20191114!

Footnotes

• #1.: Check [SO]: Run / Debug a Django application's UnitTests from the mouse right click context menu in PyCharm Community Edition? (@CristiFati's answer) (Patching UTRunner section) for how to apply patches (on Win).