Question: I installed python-certifi-win32 package and after that, I am getting below error, when I import anything or pip install anything, the fail with the final error of PermissionError. I tried rebooting the box. It didn't work. I am unable to uninstall the package as pip is erroring out too. I am unable to figure out the exact reason why this error is happening. It doesn't seem to be code specific, seems related to the library I installed PS C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\master_test_runner> pip install python-certifi-win32 Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\visha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\importlib\_common.py", line 89, in _tempfile os.write(fd, reader()) File "C:\Users\visha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\importlib\abc.py", line 371, in read_bytes with self.open('rb') as strm: File "C:\Users\visha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\importlib\_adapters.py", line 54, in open raise ValueError() ValueError During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\visha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\runpy.py", line 196, in _run_module_as_main return _run_code(code, main_globals, None, File "C:\Users\visha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code exec(code, run_globals) File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\Scripts\pip.exe\__main__.py", line 4, in <module> File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\main.py", line 9, in <module> from pip._internal.cli.autocompletion import autocomplete File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\autocompletion.py", line 10, in <module> from pip._internal.cli.main_parser import create_main_parser File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\main_parser.py", line 8, in <module> from pip._internal.cli import cmdoptions File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\cmdoptions.py", line 23, in <module> from pip._internal.cli.parser import ConfigOptionParser File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\parser.py", line 12, in <module> from pip._internal.configuration import Configuration, ConfigurationError File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\configuration.py", line 21, in <module> from pip._internal.exceptions import ( File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\exceptions.py", line 8, in <module> from pip._vendor.requests.models import Request, Response File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\__init__.py", line 123, in <module> from . import utils File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\utils.py", line 25, in <module> from . import certs File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1027, in _find_and_load File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _find_and_load_unlocked File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 688, in _load_unlocked File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\wrapt\importer.py", line 170, in exec_module notify_module_loaded(module) File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\wrapt\decorators.py", line 470, in _synchronized return wrapped(*args, **kwargs) File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\wrapt\importer.py", line 136, in notify_module_loaded hook(module) File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\certifi_win32\wrapt_pip.py", line 35, in apply_patches import certifi File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1027, in _find_and_load File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _find_and_load_unlocked File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 688, in _load_unlocked File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\wrapt\importer.py", line 170, in exec_module notify_module_loaded(module) File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\wrapt\decorators.py", line 470, in _synchronized return wrapped(*args, **kwargs) File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\wrapt\importer.py", line 136, in notify_module_loaded hook(module) File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\certifi_win32\wrapt_certifi.py", line 20, in apply_patches certifi_win32.wincerts.CERTIFI_PEM = certifi.where() File "C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\GUI_Automation\venv\lib\site-packages\certifi\core.py", line 37, in where _CACERT_PATH = str(_CACERT_CTX.__enter__()) File "C:\Users\visha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\contextlib.py", line 135, in __enter__ return next(self.gen) File "C:\Users\visha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\importlib\_common.py", line 95, in _tempfile os.remove(raw_path) PermissionError: [WinError 32] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: 'C:\\Users\\visha\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\tmpy_tb8siv' PS C:\Users\visha\PycharmProjects\master_test_runner> 

Answer: I ran into the same issue today. I corrected it by removing two *.pth files that were created when I had installed python-certifi-win32. This prevents python-certifi-win32 from loading when python is run. The files are listed below, and were located here: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\Lib\site-packages  Files: python-certifi-win32-init.pth distutils-precedence.pth  Removing these files allowed me to install/uninstall other modules.