Some Ciao users have recently reported problems with the Ciao windows installer. We have determined that, due to what we assume are recent changes in Windows security, normal users, even if with administrator privileges, are not allowed any more to perform certain operations which are necessary for the installation of many packages, such as updating registry entries. Unfortunately, instead of issuing an error the registry update operation simply fails silently. This is currently affecting GNU Emacs, Ciao, and a number of other packages.
The solution, at least for now, is to run the installers as administrator. We have added the following note in the distribution/download pages:
Note for Windows users: the setup program must be executed as Administrator. To do this save it first (do not execute it directly), go to the directory where the file was downloaded, right-click over the file, select Run as administrator (in Windows XP, Run as... and then select the user Administrator), and follow the instructions that appear on the screen.
Please remember to follow these instructions for Windows installations.
Independently of this we are working currently on a number of improvements to the Ciao Windows installer. Some of them are already incorporated in the Windows installers for the Development version (http://ciaohome.org/download_latest.html) which you may want to try.