MSI Installer Problem: can't install 2.4a2 on new install of Win2kSP2

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Richard Hanson wrote:
>   This installation package cannot be installed by the
>   Windows Installer service. You must install a
>   Windows service pack that contains a newer version
>   of the Windows Installer service.

The problem is what this message says: you need a newer
version of Windows installer.

 > Also, isn't there the general feeling that Win2kSP2 is about as good
 > as Windows gets (got)?

W2k itself is fine. However, W2k ships with Installer 1.1, W2kSP2
updates that to Installer 1.11, W2kSP3 to Installer 2.0. The Python
MSI file requires Installer 2.0.

http://www.python.org/2.4/

says

# [...] double-click python-2.4a2.msi to find out if your machine
# supports MSI. If it doesn't, you'll need to install Microsoft
# Installer first. Many other packages (such as Word and Office) also
# include MSI, so you may already have it on your system. If not, you
# can download it freely from Microsoft for Windows 95, 98 and Me and
# for Windows NT 4.0 and 2000

You can find the download links on that page.

If it used to work before the reinstallation, you either had a different
service pack installed before, or some other software you had installed
did a silent installation of a new installer release (such as Office
2k).

Regards,
Martin