|PyInstaller| runs in Windows XP or newer. It can create graphical windowed apps (apps that do not need a command window).
|PyInstaller| requires two Python modules in a Windows system. It requires either the PyWin32_ or pypiwin32_ Python extension for Windows. If you install |PyInstaller| using pip, and PyWin32 is not already installed, pypiwin32 is automatically installed. |PyInstaller| also requires the pefile_ package.
The pip-Win_ package is recommended, but not required.
|PyInstaller| runs in Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or newer. It can build graphical windowed apps (apps that do not use a terminal window). PyInstaller builds apps that are compatible with the Mac OS X release in which you run it, and following releases. It can build 32-bit binaries in Mac OS X releases that support them.
|PyInstaller| requires the ldd terminal application to discover
the shared libraries required by each program or shared library.
It is typically found in the distribution-package glibc or libc-bin.
It also requires the objdump terminal application to extract
information from object files
and the objcopy terminal application to append data to the
bootloader.
These are typically found in the distribution-package binutils.
Users have reported success running |PyInstaller| on these platforms,
but it is not tested on them.
The ldd and objdump commands are needed.
Each bundled app contains a copy of a bootloader, a program that sets up the application and starts it (see :ref:`The Bootstrap Process in Detail`).
When you install |PyInstaller| using pip_, the setup will attempt to build a bootloader for this platform. If that succeeds, the installation continues and |PyInstaller| is ready to use.
If the pip_ setup fails to build a bootloader, or if you do not use pip_ to install, you must compile a bootloader manually. The process is described under :ref:`Building the Bootloader`.