Is Python installer/un-installer buggy on Windows?

[Terry Reedy]

On 12/4/2014 11:46 AM, Aseem Bansal wrote:
> Yeah, the problem seems to be with registry as every solution seems
> to be fiddling with registry.

One can edit the registry directly with regedit.  If you try it, follow 
the instruction to first make a backup.  Look for a regedit tutorial on 
the web.

> I know that reinstalling OS is a really bad idea. But I have tried to
> find a way to solve this for months now. I have started a bounty on
> superuser also for the same in the question "Python IDLE disappeared
> from the right click context menu". And asking on these groups was
> the last thing I can think of.
>
> I uninstalled via the Control Panel. I installed via the official
> Python installer for Windows.
>
> I also don't understand how a start menu entry can begin an
> installation but it is doing just that.

To me, this specifically indicates a registry mixup.
To prevent installation, delete or rename the downloaded install files.

> Now there seems to be 4 IDLE
> entries in my start menu. Two are valid (2.7.8, 3.4.2). The other two
> are previous installations of Python 3.4  that I did at different
> locations but removed later.

Delete those two.

> I have stopped running IDLE from the
> start menu due to this. Because I am never sure whether it will
> re-install Python 3.4 at those old locations or not. Even right
> clicking those entries in start menu causes the installations to
> start. So I cannot even find the physical path of those entries.

With Win7, I keep the two current installed Idles pinned to the taskbar. 
  (I also have all three Python development versions pinned.)  With 5 
different builds of Idle to edit with, I open one or more first and then 
open to edit (often with Recent files).  I almost never use 'Edit with 
Idle'.

> Maybe too much fiddling with the registry has caused it. Not sure
> about that.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy