Richard Dooling has a nice tutorial that will have you running Python on Windows XP in seven (not eight!) minutes. I’ve been using a bit of Python lately for automating some tasks on an older Windows Server. I could be using the old DOS Batch language, but instead decided to look at a fully featured, all purpose scripting language. I know that the time I spend learning Python will pay real dividends in the future when a whole lot more will be done with it than ever will again be with DOS! I’ll bet that describes your mindset as well so if you are on XP go take a look at this well-written tutorial.