One implication of Nick's (and Steve's) position seems to me that we don't view per-user installs as a key aspect of the python.org installers. And yet the impression I get of the direction that the 3.5 installers is taking seems to contradict that - there's a definite feel that we're expecting per-user installs to be more the norm.

I think that until viable distribution channels exist, we have to accept that almost all Windows users *need* the python.org installers, regardless of their intended usage.

On Windows, at the moment, conda/enthought are entirely viable distributions, but focused on data analysis. This does have downsides for other types of user - the conda package manager largely only covers data analysis tools, and while mixing pip and conda works, it's not a core use case for the distribution and there are rough edges. I've tried using Anaconda briefly for non-data science uses, and it's a somewhat frustrating experience - not one I'd be comfortable directing new non-scientific users at.

From checking the website, ActiveState free edition is for non-commercial use only, which likely precludes use by most of the people who want to use the python.org installer in their locked-down environments (if they can't get admin rights, they almost certainly won't be able to get an ActivePython license).

So, like it or not, until more generic free-for-commercual-use distributions of Python exist, I think we need to consider Windows users without admin rights as part of the core audience for the python.org installers.

Steve's changes to the 3.5 installer make this an entirely reasonable position. I see no need to provide backported solutions - it *is* reasonable for python.org to say "if you want improvements like this, you should choose the latest release".

Regarding the OP's issue, I think "fixed in Python 3.5" remains a fair answer. It's not a case of closing the issue without addressing the basic problem. It's more that it's fixed in the only version we'd ever fix it in (3.5). AIUI, the only thing that may still need admin rights is installing the required C runtime, which as a system component *has* to be done by an admin. That's a Windows issue, though, not a Python one.