Anyone still following this issue, as I posted in issue22516, there is an embeddable zipped version of Python-2.7.X built from source using the PCbuild batch files and vc90 toolset for both x86 and x64 called Python Bootstrap:

http://breakingbytes.alwaysdata.net/PythonBootstrap/

The redistributable msvcr90.dll's are all bundled side-by-side privately with python27.dll as recommended by Windows and does not violate any licensing eulas. The build passes all tests and pythonw.exe works perfectly. Try starting python27/Scripts/idle.bat.

It ...
just ...
works ...

No ...
Admin ...
rights ...
required ...

just ...
unzip ...
use ...

FYI: doing an "administrative install" using msiexec /a (https://www.python.org/download/releases/2.4/msi/) just extracts the msi archive and creates a smaller msi package used to do a local install later. This means that your python launcher and shared library are depending on whatever redistributables you have. You can't install the merge modules into winsxs w/o elevated rights so ...

Also look at Python-3.5 for an embeddable zip file (no admin rights required) altho I think it requires vcredist for vc100 freely available from microsoft.