Getting new machine configured for "Computational Investing"

I'm under a bit more stress than I'd like.  A lot depends upon me at work and there is little time.  These minor annoyances don't help.  I end up stalling when things don't go smoothly.  None the less I learn quite a bit every time I have to deal with this stuff.  This time around I learned I need to learn how python modules are normally installed.

I was lucky that WinRAR lets me install the software on a new machine using the same key.  I'd have bought a new copy had I intended to use it on my old machine again.  I don't want to take advantage of the company, especially when I like their product.  It turns out the exe files mentioned below are auto-extract libraries.  They can be explored with WinRAR.  I'll probably look this a bit more when I get the time.

I thought I'd go ahead and upgrade the packages to the latest versions.  It turns out I'm not up to speed yet so I have to rely upon the exe files.  Several of the packages have new versions but I don't know how to install them.  Rather than learn how to install and compile packages from zipped tar balls I used the most recent version existing as an exe file.  My old machine was old enough that the dot net 1.1 dll was registered.  My "new" machine is still old enough to be Win 7 but not so old that it had
msvcr71.dll registered.  I found it in another directory and copied it to the setup directory I used to build the QSTK stack for the "Computational Investing" class.  While installing pyparsing I got a couple of errors about not being able to register something.  I played around a bit then pressed on.  It didn't matter.

Here's the files I installed in the order I installed them:

    Python 2.7.5
    python-2.7.5.msi

    numpy
    numpy-1.7.1.win32-py2.7.exe

    scipy
    scipy-0.12.0-win32-superpack-python2.7.exe

    dateutil
    python-dateutil-1.5.win32.exe

    pyparsing
    pyparsing-2.0.1.win32-py2.7.exe

    matplotlib
    matplotlib-1.3.0.win32-py2.7.exe

    pandas
    pandas-0.12.0.win32-py2.7.exe

    setuptools
    setuptools-0.6c11.win32-py2.7.exe

    cvxopt
    cvxopt-1.1.4.win32-py2.7.exe

    scikit-learn
    scikit-learn-0.14.1.win32-py2.7.exe

    scikit-statsmodel
    statsmodels-0.5.0.win32-py2.7.exe

    qstk
    QSTK-0.2.6.win32.exe

The only upgrade was pandas.  I would liked to have upgraded setuptools but the newer versions use the zipped tar balls.  I will need to install a couple of parsers in order to use them, or so I believe.