Installing Anaconda is the best way because it manages packages for my Python application as well as my R application. It comes with the Python Shell as well, just type IDLE into the search bar and voila!

The introductory tutorial has a lot of information on how to set up a package manager, how to create a new environment, etc. It is a good place to get started.

When you want to work on files in a custom folder instead of the default, we could make use of a command window in our environment (Reference).

Managing environments in Anaconda: here.

Installing nbextensions: here.