I couldn't find any instructions so here is what I wrote up in case this is helpful:

These are known successful steps to get web2py to run from source on Windows Vista Ultimate.

*Step by Step* 1. Install Python for Win32. (I installed it to C:\Program Files\Python251.) 2. Install Python for Windows Extensions. Make sure to run the installer as administrator*. 3. Include the Python directory in your Path** environment variable. 4. Download and extract the web2py source code zip file. 5. Open a cmd window, cd to the web2py directory containing the source code. 6. Run python web2py.py.

*Troubleshooting* Q: "When I run web2py.py, I get an error and a stack trace, the last call mentioning something about failing to import win32con. What gives?" A: You didn't (successfully) install Python for Windows Extensions. Please see step 2 above.

*Right click the exe, select Run as Administrator. **To do this, go to control panel, search for environment, and select the option to edit the *system* environment variables. Add on ';C:\Program Files\Python251' without the quotes to the end of Path.