diff --git a/extras/build_web2py/build_web2py.py b/extras/build_web2py/build_web2py.py
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/extras/build_web2py/build_web2py.py
@@ -0,0 +1,145 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+# up to 2019, we have used py2applet, py2exe and bbfreeze for building web2py binaries
+# The original scripts can be found on GitHub for web2py up to version 2.18.4
+# See also Niphlod's work on http://www.web2pyslices.com/slice/show/1726/build-windows-binaries
+# Then we switched to Pyinstaller in order to fully support Python 3
+
+from distutils.core import setup
+from gluon.import_all import base_modules, contributed_modules
+from gluon.fileutils import readlines_file
+from glob import glob
+import os
+import shutil
+import sys
+import re
+import zipfile
+import subprocess
+import platform
+
+
+USAGE = """
+build_web2py - make web2py Windows and MacOS binaries with pyinstaller 
+
+Usage:
+    Install pyinstaller program, copy this file to web2py root folder and run:
+    
+    python build_py3.py
+        
+"""
+
+if len(sys.argv) != 1 or not os.path.isfile('web2py.py'):
+    print(USAGE)
+    sys.exit(1)
+os_version = platform.system()
+if os_version not in ('Windows', 'Darwin'):
+    print('Unsupported system: %s' % os_version)
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+
+def unzip(source_filename, dest_dir):
+    with zipfile.ZipFile(source_filename) as zf:
+        zf.extractall(dest_dir)
+
+# borrowed from http://bytes.com/topic/python/answers/851018-how-zip-directory-python-using-zipfile
+
+
+def recursive_zip(zipf, directory, folder=""):
+    for item in os.listdir(directory):
+        if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(directory, item)):
+            zipf.write(os.path.join(directory, item), folder + os.sep + item)
+        elif os.path.isdir(os.path.join(directory, item)):
+            recursive_zip(
+                zipf, os.path.join(directory, item), folder + os.sep + item)
+
+
+# read web2py version from VERSION file
+web2py_version_line = readlines_file('VERSION')[0]
+# use regular expression to get just the version number
+v_re = re.compile('[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+')
+web2py_version = v_re.search(web2py_version_line).group(0)
+
+# Python base version
+python_version = sys.version_info[:3]
+
+
+if os_version == 'Windows':
+    print("\nBuilding binary web2py for Windows\n")
+    # to make executable without GUI we need this trick
+    shutil.copy("web2py.py", "web2py_no_console.py")
+
+    subprocess.run('pyinstaller --clean  --icon=extras/icons/web2py.ico --hidden-import=gluon.packages.dal.pydal  \
+                        --hidden-import=gluon.packages.yatl.yatl --hidden-import=site-packages web2py.py')
+    subprocess.run('pyinstaller -w --clean  --icon=extras/icons/web2py.ico --hidden-import=gluon.packages.dal.pydal  \
+                        --hidden-import=gluon.packages.yatl.yatl --hidden-import=site-packages web2py_no_console.py')
+
+    # cleanup + move binary files to dist folder
+    os.unlink('web2py_no_console.py')
+    os.unlink('web2py_no_console.spec')
+    source = 'dist/web2py/'
+    for files in os.listdir(source):
+        shutil.move(os.path.join(source, files), 'dist')
+    source2 = 'dist/web2py_no_console/'
+    files = 'web2py_no_console.exe'
+    shutil.move(os.path.join(source2, files), 'dist')
+    shutil.rmtree(source)
+    shutil.rmtree(source2)
+    os.unlink('dist/web2py.exe.manifest')
+
+    zip_filename = 'web2py_win'
+    bin_folder = 'dist'
+
+
+elif os_version == 'Darwin':
+    print("\nBuilding binary web2py for MacOS\n")
+
+    import subprocess
+    subprocess.call("pyinstaller --clean  --windowed --icon=extras/icons/web2py.icns --hidden-import=gluon.packages.dal.pydal  --hidden-import=gluon.packages.yatl.yatl \
+                    --hidden-import=site-packages --add-binary='/System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Tk':'tk' \
+                    --add-binary='/System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/Tcl':'tcl'  web2py.py", shell=True)
+
+    # cleanup + move binary files to dist folder
+    shutil.rmtree(os.path.join('dist', 'web2py'))
+    shutil.rmtree('build')
+
+    zip_filename = 'web2py_osx'
+    bin_folder = (os.path.join('dist', 'web2py.app/Contents/MacOS'))
+
+print("\nWeb2py binary successfully built!\n")
+
+
+# add data_files
+for req in ['CHANGELOG', 'LICENSE', 'VERSION']:
+    shutil.copy(req, os.path.join(bin_folder, req))
+# cleanup unuseful binary cache
+for dirpath, dirnames, files in os.walk('.'):
+    if dirpath.endswith('__pycache__'):
+        print('Deleting cached binary directory : %s' % dirpath)
+        shutil.rmtree(dirpath)
+
+print("\nPreparing package ...")
+# misc
+for folders in ['gluon', 'extras', 'site-packages', 'scripts', 'applications', 'examples', 'handlers']:
+    shutil.copytree(folders, os.path.join(bin_folder, folders))
+os.mkdir(os.path.join(bin_folder, 'logs'))
+os.unlink('web2py.spec')
+
+
+# create a web2py folder & copy dist's files into it
+shutil.copytree('dist', 'zip_temp/web2py')
+# create zip file
+zipf = zipfile.ZipFile(zip_filename + ".zip",
+                        "w", compression=zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
+# just temp so the web2py directory is included in our zip file
+path = 'zip_temp'
+# leave the first folder as None, as path is root.
+recursive_zip(zipf, path)
+zipf.close()
+shutil.rmtree('zip_temp')
+shutil.rmtree('dist')
+
+print("Your binary version of web2py can be found in " + \
+    zip_filename + ".zip")
+print("You may extract the archive anywhere and then run web2py without worrying about dependency")
+print("\nEnjoy binary web2py " + web2py_version_line + "\n with embedded Python " + sys.version + "\n")