Do I need Python installed to run the resets?

[fotedev]

Some scripts mention a Python core (src/python/ghost). Is Python a hard requirement to run GHOST? Which version? And what happens on a machine without it?

[fotedev]

Not for everything — and never as a package dependency.

Scripts that touch SQLite stores (machineid, state.vscdb, telemetry tables, the shared CLI store) call the shared Python core (src/python/ghost via ghost_cli.py). It is stdlib-only, so any working Python 3 interpreter is enough — no pip install, nothing to configure. Scripts that never touch SQLite (for example the MiniMax/OpenCode resetter) work with no Python at all.

Detection is functional, not a name lookup: each candidate (python, python3, py, per-user installs) is probed with --version, and Microsoft Store app-execution stubs plus Python 2 are rejected. If no usable interpreter is found, the SQLite-backed steps are skipped with a clear FAILED-style note and a winget install Python.Python.3.12 hint — the rest of the run still completes, is audited, and leaves its backups and restore script.