tag:selfsolved.com,2005:/problems/setuptools-06c11-fails-to-instal/sSolutions for: setuptools 0.6c11 fails to install on Windows 7 64-bit | SelfSolveda SelfSolved feed2011-09-28T23:44:52Z2SelfSolvedtag:selfsolved.com,2005:Array/69923141333960yliu
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Python\PythonCore\2.6\InstallPath. Notice the Wow6432Node, which is a registry compatibility layer used for 32-bit apps in Windows 7 64-bit.
As far as I can tell, InstallPath is the only value that this installer looks for. Therefore, using regedit, you can create your own registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Python\PythonCore\2.6\InstallPath, and copy over the InstallPath value from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\InstallPath. To be paranoid, you can try replicating the entire cluster, not just InstallPath.
After this, installation for setuptools seems to proceed correctly. Note that this may only install 32-bit libraries -- WoW6432 is a compatibility layer. Check the other documented solution to this problem if this is not sufficient.
Hopefully they'll fix this bug at some point, though the "not my problem" bug punting so far at the Python tracker and the Setuptools tracker makes this look somewhat unlikely.