Hi, Rich.
You wrote:
I would strongly recommend you use the installer bmarkus created:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/core2usb/files/core2usb-stable/
It was written with exactly your situation in mind, a machine currently running Windows with no CD drive.
I downloaded it and am planning to try it as a last resort. However, as I don' t know how it works and have had so much trouble with all other methods, even if it does install TCL on my pendrive I will have learned nothing from it, and I still won't be able to install anything else, like another distro or a bootable antimalware program.
This is an important learning experience for me, and as you know we learn more from our mistakes and from failure than from easy successes that we don't understand. Just messing with dd.exe has taught me a lot. So has searching for the reasons why syslinux and grub4dos aren't working. I didn't even know what a partition or an MBR was a month ago.
So, yes, I probably will end up giving core2usb a try. But I'm not too excited about a magic solution, if you get my meaning. I won't get any satisfaction from it, because I won't have solved the question of why I can't install in the usual ways.
Plus, suppose core2usb doesn't work. Imagine how I'll feel then.
Cheers!
Mike