@JyothishArumugam yes for number 1.
not really understanding the need for number 2. Tested and works fine on windows machines. can you please explain to me the need for this.

submit the fix for "Access Denied" separately so it can be tested and merged.
for changing the way we install check #4701 (comment)

@rolandtannous

The reason for the second fix (the --no-deps + re-pinning strategy) is to address a specific uv resolver behavior on Windows GPU machines.

When installing unsloth and torch+cuXXX in a single pass, uv often 'simplifies' the dependency tree by stripping the +cuXXX suffix, which results in a Torch CPU installation. This causes a regression where setup.ps1 detects the wrong version and triggers an infinite venv-rebuild loop.

By installing the package first with --no-deps and then explicitly re-pinning the CUDA version from the specific Torch index, we ensure the GPU 'engine' is correctly installed and the re-installation loop is broken.

@JyothishArumugam read the comment i linked on the issue.
Windows GPU machines don't have the issue you are describing. It's particular to your machine and i'd be more than happy to help you troubleshoot it. However nvidia powered windows machine are confirmed to work by internal tests and user tests. If the hypothesis was true, it would completely break and fail to work. that's not the case.
Your fix breaks the package and its particular dependency requirements.

Decouple the two fixes . Push the venv fix separately so i can test and merge. Thank you.

@rolandtannous Thank you for the response. I want to respectfully clarify why Fix 1 alone
does not solve the issue, and why Fix 2 is needed.

Why Fix 1 alone is not enough

Fix 1 (replacing Remove-Item with cmd rd) fixes the deletion failure,
but the deletion is only attempted because setup.ps1 detects
"torch cpu != required cuXXX". If torch is correctly installed as CUDA,
setup.ps1 never tries to delete the venv at all.

So the real question is: why does setup.ps1 always see "torch cpu"?

Why Fix 2 is needed — this is a uv resolver issue, not machine-specific

I added verbose logging to trace exactly what happens during install:

1. Phase 1: torch==2.6.0+cu124 is installed correctly
2. Phase 2: uv pip install --upgrade-package unsloth "$PackageName" is run
3. uv's resolver, when satisfying unsloth's dependencies, pulls torch
   from default PyPI instead of the CUDA index
4. Result: torch==2.6.0+cu124 is silently replaced with torch==2.10.0
   (no CUDA suffix, CPU-only)
5. setup.ps1 sees "torch cpu != required cu124" and tries to rebuild the venv

This is documented uv behavior — when --index-url is used in one invocation
and a subsequent invocation resolves the same package from default PyPI, the
CUDA build suffix is stripped. This is not specific to my GPU or CUDA version.

@JackieJK faces the exact same issue

Looking at @JackieJK's log in #4701:
[INFO] Stale venv detected (torch cpu != required cu130) -- rebuilding...
[ERROR] Could not remove stale venv: Access to path 'python.exe' is denied.

This is identical to my error — just with cu130 instead of cu124.
Two different machines, two different Python managers (Scoop vs PyManager),
two different CUDA versions — but the exact same failure sequence:

1. torch CUDA gets stripped → setup.ps1 detects "torch cpu" → tries to delete venv → deletion fails

If this were machine-specific, the error message would differ. The fact that
both of us hit the identical "torch cpu != required cuXXX" message strongly
suggests this is a uv resolver behavior triggered under certain Windows
PATH configurations.

What I propose

I am happy to decouple the PRs as requested:

• PR A (Fix 1 only): Remove-Item → cmd rd — safe, isolated, ready to merge
• PR B (Fix 2 only): torch re-pin after unsloth install — addresses the root cause

But I want to flag that merging only Fix 1 will not resolve the installation
failure for users like @JackieJK and myself. The venv deletion fix only makes
the error message cleaner — it doesn't stop setup.ps1 from attempting the
rebuild in the first place.

Happy to provide any additional logs or reproduce steps to help investigate.