Can't run "Python-2.1.exe" under NT...

[Tim Peters]

[Robin Dunn, reports on a Win2K install failure]
> Sorry, since it worked after I rebooted I didn't think of it so
> much as a bug but perhaps something that was flaky on my system
> before.

That's *the* crucial bit of info I really needed to know:  debugging
one-shots on Windows is hopeless, but in one previous report of what sounded
like a similar problem a reboot didn't cure it.  I'm happy that the problem
went away for you.

> (I was also kinda surprisead that the installer was a 16-bit app...)

Beggars can't be choosers, alas -- this is the 5.0a version of the Wise
installer product, current maybe 6 years ago.  They wrote it long before
Win2K or ME were even ideas <wink>.  I believe Mark Hammond talked them into
letting Python use it for free, but he moved on from this role, and I haven't
had the bandwidth to pursue a more modern alternative.

> ...
> [Win2K] SP1, also with most other updates from Windows Update as
> of a few weeks ago.  It's the English version, and a Dell OEM
> version as well (in case they did anything to it.)

In all those respects, your box matches the Windows boxes Guido & I use at
the office.

> I removed Dell's original install and reinstalled myself
> from their media.

Aha!  We didn't <wink>.

[... Administrators group, worked after a reboot ...]

> Just before the files started copying.  I think it froze when I
> clicked on the final button before the install but I don't know
> if it froze as a result of the click or if it was frozen already.

Then this may be related to one report of a Win2K freeze, except they used
the French version.

[... and a description of the usual dance when the 16-bit
     subsystem dies ...]

> I changed the install directory to c:\Tools\Python21, as I always do.
> Everything else was left alone.
>
> HTH,

It did!  Thank you very much.