I just downloaded and installed the latest version of Sigil on Windows 7 x64. When I try to run it, immediately I get error windows popping up, one after the other after I close each. Then finally Sigil comes up with one final small error window blank in front of it, and Sigil remains stuck in not responding.

First popup window says - Embedded Python error
Second says - Error in xmlprocessor repair XML: -2

Within those windows it says:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "C:/Program Files/Sigil/python3lib\xmlprocessor.py", line 5, in <module>
from sigil_bs4 import BeautifulSoup

File "C:/Program Files/Sigil/plugin_launchers/python\sigil_bs4\__init__.py", line 34, in <module>
from .builder import builder_registry, ParserRejectedMarkup

File "C:/Program Files/Sigil/plugin_launchers/python\sigil_bs4\builder\__init__.py", line 314, in <module>
from . import _htmlparser

File "C:/Program Files/Sigil/plugin_launchers/python\sigil_bs4\builder\_htmlparser.py", line 85

data = "\N{REPLACEMENT CHARACTER}"

^

SyntaxError: (unicode error) \N escapes not supported (can't load unicodedata module)

If anyone knows how to fix this please explain it like I know nothing about tweaking PCs, because that is the case. Thanks much.
Did you:
a) open Sigil using the Calibre "Open with" option or plugin,
b) manually install an older Python 3 version on your machine and configured Sigil to use an external Python interpreter
Man, I'm going to sound stupid. But really, you are talking an alien language to me.

After installation and restarting my computer, I went to the Start panel, then All Programs, down to the Sigil Folder, and clicked the Sigil icon.

How do I do b)?
Please try the following:

• Press WIN+R or select Run from Start menu (right-click Start to display the Run option)
• Paste the following command in the Run dialog and hit Enter:
  %localappdata%\sigil-ebook\sigil
  
• Rename sigil.ini to sigil.bak
• Start Sigil

Nope. Same problem still there.
Please tell me you didn't download the Sigil installer from anywhere other than Sigil's github repository?

https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil/releases/latest
No need to clutch your heart. I downloaded it from the same link you listed.

Here's a screenshot of where I get to, when trying to start.


If I try anything, nothing works. The screen goes light. If I click on the little window it asks if I want to problem solve (or something like that), wait for the program to respond, or shut down.
Hmm ... the python error message you reported makes no sense. The _htmlparser.py code in sigil_bs4/builder is not used during Sigil start up for xml repair. So something very strange is going on.

I googled the following and it appears to be a python3 "random" bug from what I can tell:

SyntaxError: (unicode error) \N escapes not supported (can't load unicodedata module)

It is really strange.

Are you sure you are using the python version that part of Sigil, and that you do not have an older or newer version of python3.x installed someplace on your system that is somehow being found in your path first?

This bug seems to hit only some users but was supposed to finally be fixed in Python 3.8.0 alpha.