Hi Gordon, I had a look - nice thingy. Maybe this is the way to do it. I resisted to unpack everything from the C starter and was more heading into having Python up before the installation process. This would make it possible to be much smarter when it comes to decide which files to pull out, where they should go etc. I think this part should already be Python. Therefore I spent time on how to build Python stand-alone, linked with zlib. But maybe your way is the better one. My target was to keep as many files as possible in the .exe and use is as a repository, acting as a vitual file system. Redirection to a fake file system should be easy with Greg's module. Only the dlls must be pulled out, there is no chance to avoid this. I thought of /windows/temp for them. Your cookie looks funny. I looked at it from a dos window and I'm trying to figure out what the meaning of 'MEI' plus all the male/female symbols could be :-) ciao - chris -- Christian Tismer :^) <mailto:tismer@appliedbiometrics.com> Applied Biometrics GmbH : Have a break! Take a ride on Python's Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 101 : *Starship* http://starship.python.net 10553 Berlin : PGP key -> http://wwwkeys.pgp.net PGP Fingerprint E182 71C7 1A9D 66E9 9D15 D3CC D4D7 93E2 1FAE F6DF we're tired of banana software - shipped green, ripens at home