IDLE GUI not working

[Python Programming]

Hello all,

Newbie here so go easy on me. I've been trying to get the IDLE GUI to
work on my machine, but have been unsuccessful so far. I have an IBM
Thinkpad running Windows XP and it has an older version of Python
running (2.2, I believe). When I try to use the shortcut to open the
IDLE GUI nothing happens (not even a process running in task
manager). When I use the cmd line to try to open the IDLE GUI, I get
this error message:

----------------------------
C:\>C:\python27\python C:\python27\Lib\idlelib\idle.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\python27\Lib\idlelib\idle.py", line 11, in <module>
idlelib.PyShell.main()
File "C:\python27\Lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 1389, in main
root = Tk(className="Idle")
File "C:\python27\lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 1685, in __init__
self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className,
interactive, want
objects, useTk, sync, use)
_tkinter.TclError: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following
directories:
{C:\IBMTOOLS\Python22\tcl\tcl8.4} C:/IBMTOOLS/Python22/tcl/tcl8.5
C:/python2
7/lib/tcl8.5 C:/lib/tcl8.5 C:/lib/tcl8.5 C:/library C:/library C:/
tcl8.5.2/libra
ry C:/tcl8.5.2/library

C:/IBMTOOLS/Python22/tcl/tcl8.4/init.tcl: version conflict for package
"Tcl": ha
ve 8.5.2, need exactly 8.4
version conflict for package "Tcl": have 8.5.2, need exactly 8.4
while executing
"package require -exact Tcl 8.4"
(file "C:/IBMTOOLS/Python22/tcl/tcl8.4/init.tcl" line 19)
invoked from within
"source C:/IBMTOOLS/Python22/tcl/tcl8.4/init.tcl"
("uplevel" body line 1)
invoked from within
"uplevel #0 [list source $tclfile]"


This probably means that Tcl wasn't installed properly.
------------------------------------

As I understand this, python 2.7 is looking in a directory or path
specified by the older, python 2.2 for Tcl. I have tried to unset
this path by entering this into the cmd line:

-------------------------------
C:\>set TCL_LIBRARY=
C:\>set TK_LIBRARY=
C:\>C:\Python27\python.exe C:\Python27\Lib\idlelib\idle.py
-------------------------------

No dice.

I tried to enter this information as a new pythonpath in the
environment variables. No dice.

I've tried, in vain, to get this thing working, but most of the other
explanations are way over my head (I'm pretty new to programming and
digging around the programming guts of computers)

It seems like a fairly common problem, but haven't gotten a good
answer from either the official python help boards or elsewhere. I
was hoping that someone here could give me a easy to understand way to
make the IDLE GUI work.

Thanks in advance.