Visual Studio Code – I think I screwed up my python installation

I’m sort of a beginner to python right now. I work in VScode. After I downloaded python 3.11, I was experiencing issues in VScode (importing and installing libraries wasn’t working). I realized I had multiple python versions on my disk, so I decided to do a purge to see if the issue would fix itself.

-What I Did-
I looked for every application and file with "python" in the name on my computer and removed it. I checked my environment variables for anything with "python" in the name, and I couldn’t find anything. I thought I got everything, but when I reinstalled python 3.11, I still got errors when installing libraries like pygame with pip. I think I may have screwed up.

-What I Think I Need To Do-
There might be a file I missed somewhere in my C drive, but I’d have no idea where it is. If that isn’t the issue, perhaps it has something to do with VScode and its settings not updating. Or, maybe it’s an issue with pip. I’m confident I got rid of pip myself, but there could be other files out there that are tougher to recognize. I don’t think it’s an environment variable issue, because I see nothing with "python" in its name.

So, what should I do? I’m not exactly sure where the problem is, or how to backtrack if I messed up somewhere. All I know is that:

1. It was working before I installed python 3.11.
2. The old python versions I used were 3.9.12 + 3.10, with the 3.9.12 saying "global" next to it when I pulled up the environment in VScode.
3. It’s not working properly now when I remove everything and install only 3.11.

EDIT: Here’s the error I got when I tried to install pygame with pip (it’s long):

Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Collecting pygame
  Using cached pygame-2.1.2.tar.gz (10.1 MB)
  Preparing metadata (setup.py) ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error
  
  × python setup.py egg_info did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [77 lines of output]
     
     
      WARNING, No "Setup" File Exists, Running "buildconfig/config.py"
      Using WINDOWS configuration...
     
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "<string>", line 2, in <module>
        File "<pip-setuptools-caller>", line 34, in <module>
        File "C:Users{My Name}AppDataLocalTemppip-install-df9zydxmpygame_7c731a410ab843a58a7dc3cf14f8979csetup.py", line 359, in <module>
          buildconfig.config.main(AUTO_CONFIG)
        File "C:Users{My Name}AppDataLocalTemppip-install-df9zydxmpygame_7c731a410ab843a58a7dc3cf14f8979cbuildconfigconfig.py", line 225, in main        
          deps = CFG.main(**kwds)
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "C:Users{My Name}AppDataLocalTemppip-install-df9zydxmpygame_7c731a410ab843a58a7dc3cf14f8979cbuildconfigconfig_win.py", line 511, in main    
          return setup_prebuilt_sdl2(prebuilt_dir)
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "C:Users{My Name}AppDataLocalTemppip-install-df9zydxmpygame_7c731a410ab843a58a7dc3cf14f8979cbuildconfigconfig_win.py", line 471, in setup_prebuilt_sdl2
          DEPS.configure()
        File "C:Users{My Name}AppDataLocalTemppip-install-df9zydxmpygame_7c731a410ab843a58a7dc3cf14f8979cbuildconfigconfig_win.py", line 336, in configure
          from . import vstools
        File "C:Users{My Name}AppDataLocalTemppip-install-df9zydxmpygame_7c731a410ab843a58a7dc3cf14f8979cbuildconfigvstools.py", line 11, in <module>    
          compiler.initialize()
        File "C:Program FilesPython311Libsite-packagessetuptools_distutilsmsvc9compiler.py", line 403, in initialize
          vc_env = query_vcvarsall(VERSION, plat_spec)
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "C:Program FilesPython311Libsite-packagessetuptools_distutilsmsvc9compiler.py", line 281, in query_vcvarsall
          raise DistutilsPlatformError("Unable to find vcvarsall.bat")
      distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat
      Making dir :prebuilt_downloads:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-devel-2.0.18-VC.zip ed561079ec622b0bab5a9e02976f5d540b0622da
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloadsSDL2-devel-2.0.18-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/release/SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-VC.zip 137f86474691f4e12e76e07d58d5920c8d844d5b
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloadsSDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/release/SDL2_ttf-devel-2.0.15-VC.zip 1436df41ebc47ac36e02ec9bda5699e80ff9bd27
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloadsSDL2_ttf-devel-2.0.15-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/release/SDL2_mixer-devel-2.0.4-VC.zip 9097148f4529cf19f805ccd007618dec280f0ecc
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloadsSDL2_mixer-devel-2.0.4-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.pygame.org/ftp/jpegsr9d.zip ed10aa2b5a0fcfe74f8a6f7611aeb346b06a1f99
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloadsjpegsr9d.zip:
      Downloading... https://pygame.org/ftp/prebuilt-x64-pygame-1.9.2-20150922.zip 3a5af3427b3aa13a0aaf5c4cb08daaed341613ed
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloadsprebuilt-x64-pygame-1.9.2-20150922.zip:
      copying into .prebuilt-x64
      Path for SDL: prebuilt-x64SDL2-2.0.18
      ...Library directory for SDL: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.0.18/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for SDL: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.0.18/include
      Path for FONT: prebuilt-x64SDL2_ttf-2.0.15
      ...Library directory for FONT: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.0.15/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for FONT: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.0.15/include
      Path for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64SDL2_image-2.0.5
      ...Library directory for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/include
      Path for MIXER: prebuilt-x64SDL2_mixer-2.0.4
      ...Library directory for MIXER: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.0.4/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for MIXER: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.0.4/include
      Path for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64
      ...Library directory for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64/lib
      ...Include directory for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64/include
      DLL for SDL2: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.0.18/lib/x64/SDL2.dll
      DLL for SDL2_ttf: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.0.15/lib/x64/SDL2_ttf.dll
      DLL for SDL2_image: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/lib/x64/SDL2_image.dll
      DLL for SDL2_mixer: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.0.4/lib/x64/SDL2_mixer.dll
      DLL for portmidi: prebuilt-x64/lib/portmidi.dll
      Path for FREETYPE not found.
      ...Found include dir but no library dir in prebuilt-x64.
      Path for PNG not found.
      ...Found include dir but no library dir in prebuilt-x64.
      Path for JPEG not found.
      ...Found include dir but no library dir in prebuilt-x64.
      DLL for freetype: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.0.15/lib/x64/libfreetype-6.dll
     
      ---
      For help with compilation see:
          https://www.pygame.org/wiki/CompileWindows
      To contribute to pygame development see:
          https://www.pygame.org/contribute.html
      ---
     
      [end of output]

  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: metadata-generation-failed

× Encountered error while generating package metadata.
╰─> See above for output.

note: This is an issue with the package mentioned above, not pip.
hint: See above for details.