Thanks Cory. I believe I've found the issue, and I filed it with the issue tracker. In the Windows python 2.3 installer, you can choose either an "admin" or "non-admin" install, the stated difference being that the core python DLLs go either in %WINDIR%\System32 or in the %PYTHONHOME% directory. (I don't know if this is a new option in Python 2.3--we jumped straight from 2.1 to 2.3.) Another difference is apparently that the Python registry keys go into the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive instead of the HKLM one. Creating the (Default) REG_SZ key for InstallPath in the HKLM hive works around the problem. Matt