IDLE won't run after installing Python 3.3 in Windows

[eglowstein.h at gmail.com]

On Wednesday, February 19, 2014 2:00:52 PM UTC-5, Terry Reedy wrote:
> On 2/19/2014 12:50 PM, Mark Lawrence wrote:
> 
> > On 19/02/2014 17:30, Mark H. Harris wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> >> Does the previous version put stuff into the registry that keeps the
> 
> >> new version from running correctly?
> 
> 
> 
> > Not that I'm aware of.  But then again if people knew the answer it
> 
> > would have been posted by now.  Where is Terry Reedy when you need him?
> 
> 
> 
> Puzzled as to what the problem is.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Terry Jan Reedy


I was extremely careful to remove any last bit of evidence in the registry that *anything* in the c:\python27 and c:\python33 directories ever existed. After the registry was purged of everything and I deleted the directories, I restarted the machine to make sure the registry was read afresh (Windows XP is wacky that way) and then did a reinstall of Python 3.3.3. Before installing anything else, I launched a program by using the 'Edit in Idle' option. Idle comes up, flashes briefly and exits. The console window never appears. If I bring up a command window and go into the lib\idlelib directory and specifically start idle with "python idle.py" or "pythons idle.py", I get Idle, but no command window. Load a file in if launched with 'python', it appears but you can't run it. If you launch with 'pythons', the whole kit & caboodle just exits when you load the file.

That might not help, but that's all I saw. Is there someplace not obvious in the registry where any interesting information is kept?