
One feature that is easily addable and will certainly make installing python on vista nicer, is to add authenticode signing to the install.
This I question very much. I experimented with authenticode before 2.4, and found it an unacceptable experience. When the MSI file starts running, installer needs to verify the signature, for which it needs to compute a hash of the entire file. For the Python MSI, this takes many seconds on a slower Pentium 4 machine. During that time, there is no visual feedback, so users are uncertain whether they have actually invoked the MSI file at all.
Currently the user is faced with a very nasty and off-putting message about an unidentified program requesting access to his computer.
Certainly. However, telling them that they have to wait just so that Windows finds out what they know already (that this is the MSI file from the Python Software Foundation, or from Martin v. Löwis) is even more nasty. Regards, Martin