I have downloaded the Python 2.7.2 Windows x86 32-bit MSI from python.org and installed it on a 64-bit Windows 7 system. Everything works (at least the command-line interpreter starts and runs), but the install process does not create any Python entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE in the Windows registry.

Various blogs refer to problems created by incomplete Python registry entries when attempting to configure third-party libraries, but I have not found a description of the complete absence of a Python entry in the registry.

I plan to use Python only with the Google Apps Engine SDK and (hopefully) django-nonrel for some fairly simple Google Apps projects. The absence of a Python registry key may not even be an issue for me, but the Django setup docs assume its existence and suggest adding path information to it as a way to populate Python's sys.path list.

Anyone else run into this? Is an additional install step necessary to create the key? Should I manually create it using regedit? Is it even needed, or can the PATH and/or PYTHONPATH environment variables be used for everything instead?

32-bit applications installed on 64-bit OSes store their registry values in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node. If you look there, you should see the settings you are looking for.