After installing the 32 bit .msi or the 64 bit .msi "for me" on a fairly
clean Vista x64 machine, the socket module won't import because of a
side-by-side configuration error.  The output below is from the 32 bit
build.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\maint>\python26\python
Python 2.6 (r26:66721, Oct  2 2008, 11:35:03) [MSC v.1500 32 bit
(Intel)] on win
32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import socket
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\python26\lib\socket.py", line 46, in <module>
    import _socket
ImportError: DLL load failed: The application has failed to start
because its si
de-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event
log for
more detail.
>>>

The event log entry for this is:
Activation context generation failed for
"C:\python26\DLLs\_socket.pyd".Error in manifest or policy file
"C:\python26\DLLs\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.MANIFEST" on line 12. The value
"../msvcr90.dll" of attribute "name" in element
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1^file" is invalid.

Changing ../msvcr90.dll to ..\msvcr90.dll does not fix the problem

Importing socket does work when the msi is installed for everyone.