[Python-Dev] Installing Python 2.6 alpha1 on Windows XP

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> We are still having problems to integrate the MS Merge module into our 
> MSI. Martin is working on the problem. In the mean time you can work 
> around the problem by installing the MSVCRT 9.0 Redist.

While this is a work-around for the people trying to run the alpha
releases, it effectively prevents them from doing useful tests in that
area for the later releases.

IIUC, there is NO way to uninstall the CRT redist (perhaps except
for deleting the files from disk, and cleaning an unknown number of
registry keys), so once you have run that on a machine, the machine
becomes useless for determining whether the installer would work
without it. As a consequence, regular testers won't report the problem
anymore, as has been demonstrated with 2.6a1, it seems (which apparently
doesn't work). Non-regular testers will have no clue what happened
(which also was just demonstrated).

Regards,
Martin