Why is runserver not working through django-admin even though it works through manage.py?

Question

Django

Project structure:

mysite/
    - config/
        - settings/ [common.py, dev.py, prod.py]
        - urls.py
        - wsgi.py
        - __init__.py
    - manage.py

Through manage.py runserver works, but through "python -m django runserver", "django-admin.exe runserver", "django-admin.py runserver" does not work.
Don't forget about DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE / --settings.
It throws an error "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'config'"
I add --pythonpath={full path to mysite} and I already get another error:
"ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'http.cookies'"

Traceback

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 318, in execute
    autoreload.check_errors(django.setup)()
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 228, in wrapper
    fn(*args, **kwargs)
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\__init__.py", line 18, in setup
    from django.urls import set_script_prefix
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\urls\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from .base import (
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\urls\base.py", line 11, in <module>
    from .exceptions import NoReverseMatch, Resolver404
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\urls\exceptions.py", line 3, in <module>
    from django.http import Http404
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\http\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.http.cookie import SimpleCookie, parse_cookie
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\http\cookie.py", line 7, in <module>
    from django.utils.six.moves import http_cookies
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\six.py", line 92, in __get__
    result = self._resolve()
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\six.py", line 115, in _resolve
    return _import_module(self.mod)
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\six.py", line 82, in _import_module
    __import__(name)
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\http\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.http.cookie import SimpleCookie, parse_cookie
ImportError: cannot import name 'SimpleCookie'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\__main__.py", line 9, in <module>
    management.execute_from_command_line()
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 364, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 331, in execute
    _parser = self.fetch_command('runserver').create_parser('django', 'runserver')
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 206, in fetch_command
    klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 40, in load_command_class
    module = import_module('%s.management.commands.%s' % (app_name, name))
  File "C:\Python36\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 994, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 971, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 955, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 665, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 678, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\runserver.py", line 12, in <module>
    from django.core.servers.basehttp import (
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\servers\basehttp.py", line 15, in <module>
    from wsgiref import simple_server
  File "C:\Python36\lib\wsgiref\simple_server.py", line 13, in <module>
    from http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, HTTPServer
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\http\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.http.cookie import SimpleCookie, parse_cookie
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\http\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.http.cookie import SimpleCookie, parse_cookie
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\http\cookie.py", line 7, in <module>
    from django.utils.six.moves import http_cookies
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\six.py", line 92, in __get__
    result = self._resolve()
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\six.py", line 115, in _resolve
    return _import_module(self.mod)
  File "F:\projects\mysite\.venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\six.py", line 82, in _import_module
    __import__(name)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'http.cookies'

Win7 32bit / Python 3.6.3 / Django 1.11.11
PS: yes, I saw this question Why can't the server be started via django-admin?
and the --pythonpath solution seems to have helped, but as you can see, another error occurred.

Answer 1

In general, yes.
Using django-admin.exe and python -m django failed to start runserver.
I think this is a windows specific problem, but still I ran the project without manage.py.
If you look at the docks for versions >=1.8, then django-admin (i.e. binary) is used there. However, older versions used the regular django-admin.py, which is still present in version 1.11. Here's how it works:

path\to\venv\Scripts\activate.bat
python path\to\venv\Scripts\django-admin.py runserver --pythonpath=path\to\project_dir --settings=config.settings.dev