[fptex] TeXsetup.exe / Win95(b) installation problem [TeXLive 7 - 9/2003]

[Leif Leonhardy]

Hello folks,

I have some "fatal" problem installing TeXLive 7 (9/2003) on an old
Windows'95-Box (Win95B=OSR2):

TeXsetup.exe (without any parameters) just silently exits after a few
seconds of deep thinking(?). [And no log files are created.]

This behavior occurs no matter if
- I run it from the TeXLive-Inst-CD 
  or from a fptex-0.7 "download directory" (obtained by getfptex.bat)
- the machine is "tex-free" or not
- I use the freshest version dated 19.12.2003 10:07 (the previous 
  version few days ago was identical to that on the CD images)
- try to use it within a TeXLive-6b (9/2001) distribution.

Searching the web and mailing-list archives only brought evidence I
am not the last and only one trying to use TeXLive with Win95... ;-)
[Btw, "texsetup and 95" seems to be equivalent to "texsetup and true"
 for ht://Dig :-( - "win95 or windows95" is more effective.]

Running "TeXsetup --help" brings the Usage-Pop-up as expected.
Running "TeXsetup what are you doing?" silently exits...
Running "TeXsetup --maintenance" states I have to install first
  even when run within an old TeXLive 6b environment

Any hints? Missing DLLs? Undocumented debug mode available?
I'd try to debug texsetup.exe if I only had M*soft VC...

Thanks in advance,
Leif

P.S.:
  Links to documentation on how to install manually (on Win32) or
  what TeXsetup really does are very welcome, too, especially those
  "handcoded"? configuration steps beyond TPM-handling, i.e. PATH
  and environment variable settings, config file modifications etc.
  I guess the Un*x scripts won't work despite of win32-gnus (bash,
  perl and friends), right?
  
  I actually started trying to update my TeXLive 6b installation, but
  beside broken links the old TeXsetup was unable to handle the "new"
  TPM format; the new TeXsetup in turn just seemed to be unaware of my
  old installation, so I resorted to burning another fresh half a GB :-)