A guide to creating a simplistic .exe python package installer:

  1. Create a setup.py file in the directory above your package directory: 
    MyPythonPackage
setup.py
  2. Copy the following in setup.py: 
    from distutils.core import setup
import setuptools
import sys

setup(name='MyAmazingLibrary',
    version='0.1',
    description='My Amazing Library',
    author='My Name',
    url='http://code.google.com/p/MyAmazingLibrary/',
    packages=setuptools.find_packages('.'),
    package_dir = {'':'.'},
)
  3. Open a command prompt in the directory containing the setup.py and execute 
    python setup.py bdist_wininst
  4. Observe how the installer appears in the newly created dist directory.

Additional Notes

  • To specify that the installer is only for a specific Python install use the –target-version option with setup.py, eg: 
    python setup.py bdist_wininst --target-version=2.5
  • Swap bdist_wininst to bdist_msi to create a Windows Installer for your python package.