From Zero to Lasagne on Vista or XP

From Zero to Lasagne on Windows Vista or XP

To use Lasagne on Windows Vista or Windows XP, another way is needed than to use the python distribution WinPython as in the Windows 7 guide. In this tutorial you are guided through installing an older version of anaconda. Still, this allows you to use accelerated linear algebra operations (BLAS) using the mkl implementation. For CUDA support, look into the Windows 7 guide.

Python

Winpython and recent versions of Anaconda require Windows 7, but an older Version of anaconda (up to 2.3.0) can be used. Go to https://repo.continuum.io/archive/ and get Anaconda3-2.3.0-Windows-x86.exe and install it.

Requirements for Theano

To install the requirements for Theano, type into the command prompt and install:

conda install mkl-service libpython
conda install m2w64-toolchain

The package m2w64-toolchain contains a c++ compiler which is used by Theano, which means that no additional gcc has to be installed. To get the mkl implementation of BLAS, go to https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/ and download the file numpy-1.14.5+mkl-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl. In the command prompt go to the directory you downloaded the file in and install it by:

pip install numpy-1.14.5+mkl-cp34-cp34m-win32.whl

Also the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package needs to be installed if it is not installed yet.

Installing Theano and Lasagne

Now Theano and Lasagne can be installed using

pip install --upgrade https://github.com/Theano/Theano/archive/master.zip
pip install --upgrade https://github.com/Lasagne/Lasagne/archive/master.zip