Just FYI, if you want to make double-clicking .egg files automatically install them with EasyInstall, you can do it by putting the following entries in the Windows registry (Python 2.3 example shown): Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.egg] @="Python.Egg" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg] "EditFlags"=dword:00000000 "BrowserFlags"=dword:00000008 @="Python Egg" "AlwaysShowExt"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg\DefaultIcon] @="C:\\Python23\\python.exe,0" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg\shell] @="Install Egg for Python 2.3" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg\shell\Install Egg for Python 2.3] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg\shell\Install Egg for Python 2.3\command] @="c:\\windows\\command\\cmd.exe /D /K C:\\Python23\\Scripts\\easy_install \"%L\"" I wasn't able to get Firefox to directly install straight from a download, but saving to disk and then double-clicking worked. It might be interesting to add a script to setuptools that would make these entries for you, automatically adjusting paths where necessary. :) Note that the '/K' part of the cmd.exe line ensures that a command shell window is left open for confirmation when easy_install finishes. That way, you can see any errors, warnings, etc. Thanks to Tiago Cogumbreiro, by the way, for inadvertently giving me the idea that something like this might be possible without writing any new code. :)