Windows

For x86 processors: Python-2.4.3.msi

For Win64-Itanium users: Python-2.4.3.ia64.msi

This installer allows for automated installation and many other new features.

To use these installers, the Windows system must support Microsoft Installer 2.0. Just save the installer file to your local machine and then run it to find out if your machine supports MSI.

Windows XP and later already have MSI; many older machines will already have MSI installed.

If your machine lacks Microsoft Installer, you'll have to download it freely from Microsoft for Windows 95, 98 and Me and for Windows NT 4.0 and 2000.

Windows users may also be interested in Mark Hammond's pywin32 package, available from Sourceforge. pywin32 adds a number of Windows-specific extensions to Python, including COM support and the Pythonwin IDE.

MacOS X

For MacOS X 10.3 and later: Universal-MacPython-2.4.3-2006-04-07.dmg.

The Universal MacPython 2.4.3 image contains an installer for python 2.4.3 that works on Mac OS X 10.3.9 and later, on both PPC and Intel Macs. The compiled libraries include both bsddb and readline.

Other platforms

gzip-compressed source code: python-2.4.3.tgz

bzip2-compressed source code: python-2.4.3.tar.bz2, the source archive.

The bzip2-compressed version is considerably smaller, so get that one if your system has the appropriate tools to deal with it.

Unpack the archive with tar -zxvf Python-2.4.3.tgz (or bzcat Python-2.4.3.tar.bz2 | tar -xf -). Change to the Python-2.4.3 directory and run the "./configure", "make", "make install" commands to compile and install Python. The source archive is also suitable for Windows users who feel the need to build their own version.