Thanks for the speedy reply I have cut and past the results from the for following tests

I can't test this on Windows, but you could try the following things:
  1) check that 'python.exe -V' returns 2.6.6;
  2) try using the IDLE shortcut in the start menu;
  3) try "from abc import ABCMeta" from the interactive interpreter;
  4) install Python 2.7 and see if it works there.


1) C:\Documents and Settings\buck>python.exe -V
   Python 2.6.6

2.) Does not open from the start menu

3.) C:\Documents and Settings\buck>python
    'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
     Python 2.6.6 (r266:84297, Aug 24 2010, 18:46:32) [MSCv.1500
     32 bit (Intel)] on win32
     Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for 
     more information.
     >>> from abc import ABCMeta
     Traceback (most recent call last):
     File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
     ImportError: cannot import name ABCMeta

4.)  C:\Python27>python.exe Lib\idlelib\idle.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site.py", line 62, in <module>
    import os
  File "C:\Python27\lib\os.py", line 398, in <module>
    import UserDict
  File "C:\Python27\lib\UserDict.py", line 83, in <module>
    import _abcoll
  File "C:\Python27\lib\_abcoll.py", line 11, in <module>
    from abc import ABCMeta, abstractmethod
ImportError: cannot import name ABCMeta

Lastly

C:\Python26>python.exe -c "import abc; print abc"
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
<module 'abc' from 'C:\w\ADCP_programs\abc.py'>

Thanks again

Nathan