I’m on Windows 11 and originally had two Python installations: 3.14 and 3.9.
Both were installed and added to the PATH.

After setting up PyCharm 2025.2.4, I started getting this error when creating a virtual environment for Python 3.9:

Cannot set up a python SDK
at Python 3.14 (Python) (C:/Users/.../PycharmProjects/Python/.venv/Scripts/python.exe).
The SDK seems invalid.

When trying to create a venv manually:

python -m venv .venv
Error: Command '['...\Scripts\python.exe', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--upgrade', '--default-pip']' returned non-zero exit status 101.

What I have already tried:

• Removed Python 3.14 from PATH → deleted .idea, removed .venv → rebooted
  No effect. PyCharm still tries to use Python 3.14, even though it is no longer installed.

• Completely uninstalled Python 3.14 → cleaned .idea, removed .venv → rebooted
  No effect. PyCharm still shows:

< Python 3.14 (Python)> C:\Users\...\PycharmProjects\Python\.venv\Scripts\python.exe

But this directory does NOT exist.

• Uninstalled Python 3.9 as well → cleaned .idea → removed all venvs → rebooted → Installed Python 3.9 again on a clean system
  Still the same result — PyCharm keeps insisting on linking the project to Python 3.14, which no longer exists.

Additional details:

• I deleted PyCharm caches:
  C:\Users\\AppData\Local\JetBrains\PyCharm2025.2.4\
  C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\JetBrains\PyCharm2025.2.4\

• I recreated the entire project in a new folder — PyCharm STILL automatically selects Python 3.14.

• In the project structure I see:

External Libraries → Python 3.14 (Python)
C:\Users\...\PycharmProjects\Python\.venv\Scripts\python.exe

But this folder and interpreter do not exist at all.

Question:

Where could PyCharm be storing or retrieving the path to this phantom Python 3.14 interpreter, considering that:

• Python 3.14 was removed from PATH

• Python 3.14 was fully uninstalled

• the project’s .idea folder was deleted

• JetBrains caches were deleted

• all virtual environments were removed

• Python 3.9 was installed fresh on a clean system

And how can I completely remove any reference to this non-existent Python 3.14 interpreter so PyCharm stops trying to use it?