Download the release

Starting with the Python 2.4 releases theWindows Pythoninstaller is being distributed as a Microsoft Installer (.msi) file.To use this, the Windows system must support Microsoft Installer2.0. Just save the installer filePython-2.4.2.msito your local machine, then double-click python-2.4.2.msi to findout if your machine supports MSI. If it doesn't, you'll need toinstall Microsoft Installer first. Many other packages (such asWord and Office) also include MSI, so youmay already have it on your system. If not, you can download it freelyfrom Microsoft forWindows 95, 98 and Meand forWindows NT 4.0 and 2000.Windows XP and later already have MSI; many older machines will already have MSI installed.

The new format installer allows forautomated installationandmany other shiny new features.There is also a separate installerPython-2.4.2.ia64.msifor Win64-Itanium users.

Windows users may also beinterested in Mark Hammond'spywin32 package,available fromSourceforge.pywin32 adds a number of Windows-specific extensions to Python, including COM support and the Pythonwin IDE.

RPMs for Fedora Core 3 (and similar) are available, seethe 2.4.2 RPMs page

All others should download eitherpython-2.4.2.tgz orpython-2.4.2.tar.bz2,the source archive. The tar.bz2 is considerably smaller, so get that one ifyour system has theappropriate tools to deal with it. Unpack it withtar-zxvfPython-2.4.2.tgz (orbzcatPython-2.4.2.tar.bz2 | tar-xf -).Change to the Python-2.4.2 directoryand run the "./configure", "make", "make install" commands to compileand install Python. The source archive is also suitable for Windows userswho feel the need to build their own version.

What's New?

• See thehighlights of the Python 2.4 release.
• Andrew Kuchling'sWhat's New in Python 2.4describes the most visible changes sincePython 2.3 in more detail.
• A detailed list of the changes in 2.4.2 can be found in therelease notes,or theMisc/NEWS file in the source distribution.
• For the full list of changes, you can poke around inCVS.

Documentation

The documentation has also been updated:

• Browse HTML on-line
• Download usingHTTP.
• Documentation is available in Windows Help (.chm) format -python24.chm.

Files,MD5 checksums, signatures and sizes

07cfc759546f6723bb367be5b1ce9875Python-2.4.2.tgz(9239975 bytes,signature)

98db1465629693fc434d4dc52db93838Python-2.4.2.tar.bz2(7853169 bytes,signature)

bfb6fc0704d225c7a86d4ba8c922c7f5python-2.4.2.msi(9671168 bytes,signature)

f9a189a11316dc523732b38334c9dd7bpython-2.4.2.ia64.msi(8110080 bytes,signature)

XXXXX575a2c5d6ab24be10c38154551aMacPython-OSX-2.4.2-1.dmg(7918391 bytes,signature)

The signatures above were generated withGnuPG using release managerAnthony Baxter'spublic keywhich has a key id of 6A45C816.