diff --git a/panda/src/doc/howto.install_vc7 b/panda/src/doc/howto.install_vc7
index faa4430b48..f342746243 100644
--- a/panda/src/doc/howto.install_vc7
+++ b/panda/src/doc/howto.install_vc7
@@ -2,30 +2,26 @@ VC7 upgrade instructions in 2 easy steps
 ------------------------
 Step 1. cvs update wintools & dtool
 
-Step 2.
-Run v:\msvc7\vc_setup\setup.exe, or install from the MSDN 'Visual
-Studio.NET' CD
-Click on 'Windows Component Update' (if it is highlighted, else click '2')
-Click 'Continue' (Selecting 'Do not use this machine to host web projects')
-You will install IE6, which will requires a reboot.  Give your pw if you
-want it to happen automatically.
+Step 2.  Run v:\msvc7\vc_setup\setup.exe, or install from the MSDN
+'Visual Studio.NET' CD.  Click on 'Windows Component Update' (if it is
+highlighted, else click '2').  Click 'Continue' (Selecting 'Do not use
+this machine to host web projects') You will install IE6, which will
+requires a reboot.  Give your pw if you want it to happen
+automatically.
 
 After rebooting, setup should start again.  If it does not, go back and
-rerun
-it, it should remember where it left off.
+rerun it, it should remember where it left off.
 
 After installing components, you are ready to install VC7 in Step 2.
 Enter this step and enter the product-key, which is stored in
 V:\msvc7\vc7-prodkey.txt
 
-On the 'select items to install page', you need uncheck things to avoid
-wasting 
-gigs of extra space and install time.  Uncheck everything except for
-Language Tools->Visual C++, Server Components->Remote Debugger->Native
-Remote
-Debugger, and if you want, Documentation (this is a gig, and is only a
-slight
-update if you already have MSDN installed locally though.  you will want to
+On the 'select items to install page', you need uncheck things to
+avoid wasting gigs of extra space and install time.  Uncheck
+everything except for Language Tools->Visual C++, Server
+Components->Remote Debugger->Native Remote Debugger, and if you want,
+Documentation (this is a gig, and is only a slight update if you
+already have MSDN installed locally though.  You will want to
 uninstall the separately-installed MSDN docs if you get this.)
 
 Unlike VC 6.0, there is no option to add the required compiler bin 
@@ -33,21 +29,55 @@ directories to the environment path automatically.  To do this, if you
 are running from the NT command line, run 
 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET\Vc7\bin\vcvars32.bat"
 
-If you are using tcsh.exe under cygwin,
-'source $WINTOOLS/bin/setup_msvc7.csh'
-should enable VC7.  You will want to copy the top portion of setup_msvc7.csh
-to your .cshrc,
-so you can do 'set_msvc7' to set up the PATH properly in the future, or you
-can
-add the required dirs to the front of your path explicitly as well as
-'setenv USE_COMPILER MSVC7'
-to always use VC7.
+If you are using tcsh.exe under cygwin, enable VC7 using 
+'source $WINTOOLS/bin/setup_msvc7.csh' 
+
+You will want to copy the top portion of setup_msvc7.csh to your
+.cshrc, so you can do 'set_msvc7' to set up the PATH properly in the
+future, or you can add the required dirs to the front of your path
+explicitly as well as 'setenv USE_COMPILER MSVC7' to always use VC7.
+The easiest thing to do is just put the 'set_msvc7' at the end of your
+.cshrc.
+
+IMPORTANT:
+
+After finishing this process, make sure you are using VC7 in your
+shell by typing 'cl' at the prompt.  If you see: 
+
+> Microsoft (R)32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 13.00.9466 for 80x86 
+> Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1984-2001.
+
+then you have VC7.  If you have still VC6, you will see
+> Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 12.00.8804 for 80x86
+> Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1984-1998. 
+
+If you try to build with this broken setup, the build process
+will get confused and compile with VC6 but try to link with 
+the VC7 libraries and you will get link errors.
+
+To correct this problem, check your tcsh path to make sure it has the
+.NET dirs in it, and make sure the cygwin softlink mount point /msvc7
+exists, and is not empty but points to the proper VC7 directory. Doing
+'ls /msvc7' should give you something like
+
+Common7/               Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect - English/
+Crystal Reports/       Visual Studio SDKs/
+EnterpriseFrameworks/  contents.htm
+FrameworkSDK/          readme.htm
+Msdn/                  redist.txt
+Setup/                 sqlserver/
+Vb7/                   toc.htm
+Vc7/                   vdt70vcs.dll*
+
+If it does not, try running 'source ~/player/wintools/etc/setup_env.csh'
+again to get it to do the 
+'mount -s C:/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ Visual\ Studio\ .NET /msvc7'
+cmd to create the softlink, or run the cmd yourself.
 
 ---
 Notes:
 The debug C runtime seems significantly slower than the vc6 one, which has
-slowed Opt2 
-install builds considerably.
+slowed Opt2 install builds considerably.
 ---------
 To distribute toontown,
 We need to rebuild the python and nspr DLLs to link to the new
@@ -60,4 +90,6 @@ msvcp60.dll
 msvcrt.dll
 in the Toontown download.
 
-The nspr work is already checked in.
+
+
+