[tex-live] couldn't install on Windows 7

[Geoffrey S. Knauth]

I'm a happy TeX Live user on my Mac and on GNU/Linux.

However, when I tried installing TeX Live (install-tl) on my kid's Windows 7 computer -- I want them to see how TeX can help them [1] -- I get an alert pretty quickly:

   Perl.exe has stopped running

or words to that effect.  Has anyone else seen that?

Geoff

[1] My 12 year-old was using Microsoft Word to draw a large grid and put formulas into it, for a math game he's designing.  He was constantly fiddling with the formulas to make them look right, and I couldn't help thinking he could let TeX draw the grid and put the formulas in so it would look just right.