python 2.7 – conda create environment command gives ‘Found conflicts! Looking for incompatible packages.’

Credit to @cel

Switching to mamba provided better diagnostics.

mamba create -n foo python=2

Looking for: ['python=2']

conda-forge/win-64                                          Using cache
conda-forge/noarch                                          Using cache
Encountered problems while solving:
 - nothing provides vc 9.* needed by python-2.7.12-0

Then use mamba to find vc.

mamba search vc

# Name                       Version           Build  Channel
vc                              14.1      h21ff451_1  conda-forge
vc                              14.1      h6d1b3ff_2  conda-forge
...

The vc v9 can be found in the defaults channel.

mamba search 'vc[channel=defaults]'

# Name                       Version           Build  Channel
vc                                 9      h2eaa2aa_6  pkgs/main
...

Updating the .condarc with the defaults channel, corrected the problem.

channels:
  - conda-forge
  - defaults
channel_priority: disabled

As a final note…
The .condarc got damaged when I installed mambaforge.