PyQt5 - Failed to load platform plugin “windows”. Available platforms are: windows, minimal

Question

When I try to run any PyQt5 program from Eclipse, I got this error.

Failed to load platform plugin \"windows\". Available platforms are: windows, mini

Answer 1

I found the file: qwindows.dll needed to be included to allow my .exe file to run independently without getting the error. To do so, add the qwindows.dll path to your data files list:

setup(windows=[YOURSCRIPT.py]
, data_files = [('.','DRIVE:\PythonPath\Lib\site-packages\PyQt4\plugings\platforms\qwindows.dll')]) 

The reason you would do this and now set your environment path is that your program will run on any machine if the qwindows.dll file is held in the same package. If you only set the environment variable, the program will only successfully run on a computer with PyQt installed.