Miniconda installation fails even when all files and paths exist

Product Help Anaconda & Miniconda
1

I downloaded miniconda as I need it to run a package. Ive killed a few hours now just trying to run it. Hence why I am posting such a basic question here.
I can find all the files, and my path has needed values. I’ve verified all the files exist and still I get a variety of errors the main one being'ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'conda'.

If I try to run this file it says I’m missing a package, but I just downloaded this. And yes, I tried to reinstall it which did not help at all.

Do I need the full conda download to run miniconda? This is what it seems to be saying with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'conda'

I am conntected to the miniconda python interpreter

$ which python
/c/Users/me/miniconda3/python

Here are some logs to show things exist:

$ python miniconda3/Scripts/conda-script.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\me\miniconda3\Scripts\conda-script.py", line 11, in <module>
    from conda.cli import main
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'conda'


λ pwd
C:\Users\me\miniconda3
λ ls
_conda.exe*
api-ms-win-core-console-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-console-l1-2-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-datetime-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-debug-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-errorhandling-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-fibers-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-file-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-file-l1-2-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-file-l2-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-handle-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-heap-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-interlocked-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-libraryloader-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-localization-l1-2-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-memory-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-namedpipe-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-processenvironment-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-processthreads-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-processthreads-l1-1-1.dll*
api-ms-win-core-profile-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-rtlsupport-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-string-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-synch-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-synch-l1-2-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-sysinfo-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-timezone-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-core-util-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-conio-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-convert-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-environment-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-filesystem-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-heap-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-locale-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-math-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-multibyte-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-private-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-process-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-stdio-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-string-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-time-l1-1-0.dll*
api-ms-win-crt-utility-l1-1-0.dll*
concrt140.dll*
condabin/
conda-meta/
cwp.py
DLLs/
etc/
EULA.txt
include/
Lib/
Library/
libs/
LICENSE_PYTHON.txt
Menu/
msvcp140.dll*
msvcp140_1.dll*
msvcp140_2.dll*
msvcp140_atomic_wait.dll*
msvcp140_codecvt_ids.dll*
pre_uninstall.bat
python.exe*
python.pdb
python3.dll*
python312.dll*
python312.pdb
pythonw.exe*
pythonw.pdb
Scripts/
share/
shell/
Tools/
ucrtbase.dll*
Uninstall-Miniconda3.exe*
vccorlib140.dll*
vcomp140.dll*
vcruntime140.dll*
vcruntime140_1.dll*
vcruntime140_threads.dll*
zlib.dll*

Inside the PATH
C:\Users\me\miniconda3
C:\Users\me\miniconda3\Scripts
C:\Users\me\miniconda3\Library\bin

#BASH
$ conda
bash: conda: command not found

#CONDA 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\me\miniconda3\Scripts\conda-script.py", line 11, in <module> 
    from conda.cli import main
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'conda'

 #conda exists
λ ls Lib\site-packages\
_pycache__/                               jsonpointer.py
_brotli.cp312-win_amd64.pyd*               jsonpointer-2.1-py3.6.egg-info/
_cffi_backend.cp312-win_amd64.pyd*         libmambapy/
_distutils_hack/                           libmambapy-1.5.11.dist-info/
_ruamel_yaml.cp312-win_amd64.pyd*          menuinst/
anaconda_anon_usage/                       menuinst-2.2.0.dist-info/
anaconda_anon_usage-0.5.0.dist-info/       packaging/
archspec/                                  packaging-24.1.dist-info/
archspec-0.2.3.dist-info/                  pip/
boltons/                                   pip-24.2.dist-info/
boltons-23.0.0.dist-info/                  pkg_resources/
brotli.py                                  platformdirs/
Brotli-1.0.9.dist-info/                    platformdirs-3.10.0.dist-info/
certifi/                                   pluggy/
certifi-2024.8.30.dist-info/               pluggy-1.5.0.dist-info/
cffi/                                      pycosat.cp312-win_amd64.pyd*
cffi-1.17.1.dist-info/                     pycosat-0.6.6.dist-info/
charset_normalizer/                        pycparser/
charset_normalizer-3.3.2.dist-info/        pycparser-2.21.dist-info/
colorama/                                  PySocks-1.7.1.dist-info/
colorama-0.4.6.dist-info/                  README.txt
conda/                                     requests/
.....
2

Note: I deleted miniconda but bug continues with regular conda.
Maybe these are caused by weird bugs in the installation process? In Windows the paths are not setup to work on bash shells. Seems like a pretty massive misstep for such a popular package.
I’m using command line for windows (not command prompt or powershell) and the paths’ slashes are opposite in each shell.
bash shell does not read \ as is. It must be \\.

$ conda install pipenv

EnvironmentLocationNotFound: Not a conda environment: C:\ProgramDatanaconda3

There are no slashes separating the path, which is actually correct otherwise.
This shows it too:

$  conda info
    active environment : C:\ProgramDatanaconda3
    active env location : C:\ProgramDatanaconda3

In command prompt the paths are correct

C:\Users\Me\code\source\repos\arcgis-cloner>conda info
   active environment : base
   active env location : C:\ProgramData\anaconda3

And conda keyword is found

C:\Users\Me\code\source\repos\arcgis-cloner>conda
usage: conda-script.py [-h] [-v] [--no-plugins] [-V] COMMAND ...

conda is a tool for managing and deploying applications, environments and packages.
...

With all the Windows users out there how do others not have this issue? I’m only trying to do the most basic installation possible, and not like some custom installation.