[quietbritishjim]

It's probably on the list that you've tried, but I've had most luck with Nuitka (in standalone mode, not onefile). Unlike pyinstaller, it really is the executable it claims to be, not just an elaborate zip file containing python.exe and your source files.

[Zamiel_Snawley]

Nuitka(and a couple other python distribution techniques) tripped my employer’s antivirus.

The packaging/deployment of python keeps me from using it for anything other than one-off, disposable programs.

[quietbritishjim]

That often happens when a program is just a self-extractor that puts the real executable in a temp directory and runs that. That's how most Python packagers work (including PyInstaller), but Nuitka only does that in "onefile" mode (it self-extracts the files that make up "standalone" mode).

In "standalone" mode, the executable really is just a normal program. It's actually the various fragments of the Python bytecode interpreter unrolled according to the Python bytecode of your program and the packages it uses. All the C extension modules are shared libraries in the same directory (this means you can use LGPL C extension modules like PyQt BTW) and any package data files are alongside in that directory too. This makes it seem a bit messy but in reality it's cleaner than what onefile does under the hood.

(This is what I was alluding to in my parent comment but I didn't explain myself.)

[Numerlor]

While it does proper transpiling nuitka is still also a zip containing python and python files because there are things it can't deal with

[quietbritishjim]

No it's not, in standalone mode. Even in onefile mode, which is what you're referring to, the contents on the inside are the same as standalone mode, so it's still more than just Python and your source files. It does include the Python interpreter as a library so it can handle calls to `exec()`, but almost all code is unrolled to C and compiled directly.