[Python] No module named 'pywintypes'; seemingly problem with virtual environment

I've read through all the relevant posts to this question, but sadly most remain unanswered, or don't seem to apply to my specific situation.

I want to use the win32com module, which is part of the pywin32 package. When I import win32com, I get the error:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pywintypes'
​

When I try to pip install pywin32 (which should contain pywintypes) using the terminal with the virtual environment activated, I get the message:

Requirement already satisfied: pywin32 in c:\users\username\appdata\local\packages\pythonsoftwarefoundation.python.3.12_qbz5n2kfra8p0\localcache\local-packages\python312\site-packages (308)
​

When I want to uninstall the pywin32 package in the virtual environment in order to reinstall it, I get the message:

Found existing installation: pywin32 308 Not uninstalling pywin32 at c:\users\username\appdata\local\packages\pythonsoftwarefoundation.python.3.12_qbz5n2kfra8p0\localcache\local-packages\python312\site-packages, outside environment C:\Users\username\Documents\Python_Projects\ALP.venv Can't uninstall 'pywin32'. No files were found to uninstall.
​

So it seems that when (un)installing pywin32, pip looks at localcache\site-packages. Yet the venv can't access the packages installed there. I want to install pywin32 in the venv, but that is not possible since pip already finds an installation. It's just that it looks for it in localcache\site-packages instead of venv\Lib\site-packages.

When doing pip list inside the virtual environment, pywin32 (version 308) shows up. Also when checking python -c "import sys; print(sys.executable)", the correct python installation shows up (the one in the venv).

I've tried updating the PATH variable with a path to venv\Scripts. I've also copied the pywin32 folders from localcache\site-packages to venv\Lib\site-packages, with no effect.

Something that's odd, though I'm no sure if it's problematic, is that if I do where python in the venv, I get two paths. One to the python installation in the venv, and one to a general installation in Windowsapps. Could this be what is confusing pip?

Any help would be much appreciated.

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