As above, sounds like an issue with your install/set-up, I'd guess the search path in the environment is not set correctly.
I'm not familiar with Python on VS/Windows, but try checking the PYTHONPATH setting, see here in the Windows section...
https://bic-berkeley.github.io/psych-214-fall-2016/using_pythonpath.html
...this page also includes a simple script to tell you the value of the variable, if you run it in VS and then as executable, see if the answers differ.