I spend a fair bit of time with a locked-down Windows XP machine. Fortunately, I’m able to install Emacs which provides capabilities that I find quite helpful. I’ve had to reinstall Emacs a few times now. So, for my own benefit (and perhaps your’s) here are the steps I follow:

  1. Download EmacsW32 patched and install in my user directory under Apps

    Available from http://ourcomments.org/Emacs/EmacsW32.html

  2. Set the environment variable for HOME to my user directory

    Right click on My Computer, select the Advanced tab, and then Environment Variables.

    Add a new variable and set Variable name to HOME and Variable value to C:\Documents and Settings\my_user_directory

  3. Download technomancy’s Emacs Starter Kit

    Available from http://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit

    Extract archive into .emacs_d in %HOME%

    Copy my specific emacs settings into .emacs_d\my_user_name.el