Win95: "Corrupt intallation detected." - cause known, solution needed

[Tim Peters]

[Szczepan Ho³yszewski]
> I just downloaded Python-2.1.1.exe installer and, guess, I'm getting
> that "Corrupt installation detected." box. I've already found out
> that it has something to do with administrator privileges on WinNT/2000.

In the sense that *if* you're running NT/2K, it's possible to get a *bogus*
"Corrupt installation detected" msg from the 2.1.1 installer simply because
you don't have sufficient privilege.  The new 2.2a2 installer should not
have that problem (if you want to be a daring alpha tester, try that
instead!).

That's not a possible cause on 95/98/ME, though.  It's far more likely on
the latter that the download is in fact corrupt.  If you tried downloading
using Netscape, try IE instead, or vice versa, or if you use ftp make sure
you use binary mode.

A size check sometimes settles this issue:

C:\Code>dir Python-2.1.1.exe

 Volume in drive C is HOMEDRIVE
 Volume Serial Number is 2637-18E7
 Directory of C:\Code

PYTHON~1 EXE     6,310,277  07-20-01 12:00p Python-2.1.1.exe

If your Python-2.1.1.exe isn't exactly 6,310,277 bytes, it's definitely
corrupt.

> But_I_have_Win95_ so how can I log in with administrator provileges
> on a system that doesn't support any privileges at all?

You can't; that stuff is irrelevant on Win95.

> Why does the installer think it is running on WinNT/2000?

It doesn't.

> How to fix the problem without actually buying and installing
> WinNT and then logging in as an administrator?

See above.  BTW, corrupted downloads on 95/98 are a surprisingly common
problem!  Most problem reports on those boxes go away after downloading
using some other method, and sometimes after a reboot too (although Win9x
users do that so often it's hard to tell whether it's actually relevant --
but on Win9x a reboot never hurts, so what the heck <wink>).