In Wine, I can happily install mingw and add it to the global PATH by editing the registry key PATH in [System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]
However, once I install ActivePython, something gets screwed up, and from then on, 'PATH' in CMD says PATH="C:\Python26";;C:\Python26; even if I remove that bit from that registry key and add other directories. Anyone know what the heck is going on?