diff --git a/pyfpdb/Options.py b/pyfpdb/Options.py
index 38307d40..8cd98f20 100644
--- a/pyfpdb/Options.py
+++ b/pyfpdb/Options.py
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ def fpdb_options():
     parser.add_option("-c", "--configFile", 
                       dest="config", default=None,
                       help="Specifies a configuration file.")
+    parser.add_option("-r", "--rerunPython", 
+                      action="store_true", 
+                      help="Indicates program was restarted with a different path (only allowed once).")
     (options, sys.argv) = parser.parse_args()
     return (options, sys.argv)
 
diff --git a/pyfpdb/fpdb.py b/pyfpdb/fpdb.py
index 570143cf..7f648b52 100755
--- a/pyfpdb/fpdb.py
+++ b/pyfpdb/fpdb.py
@@ -17,6 +17,33 @@
 
 import os
 import sys
+import re
+
+# if path is set to use an old version of python look for a new one:
+# (does this work in linux?)
+if os.name == 'nt' and sys.version[0:3] not in ('2.5', '2.6') and '-r' not in sys.argv:
+    #print "old path =", os.environ['PATH']
+    dirs = re.split(os.pathsep, os.environ['PATH'])
+    # remove any trailing / or \ chars from dirs:
+    dirs = [re.sub('[\\/]$','',p) for p in dirs]
+    # remove any dirs containing 'python' apart from those ending in 'python25', 'python26' or 'python':
+    dirs = [p for p in dirs if not re.search('python', p, re.I) or re.search('python25$', p, re.I) or re.search('python26$', p, re.I)]
+    tmppath = ";".join(dirs)
+    #print "new path =", tmppath
+    if re.search('python', tmppath, re.I):
+        os.environ['PATH'] = tmppath
+        print "Python " + sys.version[0:3] + ' - press return to continue\n'
+        sys.stdin.readline()
+        os.execvpe('python.exe', ('python.exe', 'fpdb.py', '-r'), os.environ) # first arg is ignored (name of program being run)
+    else:
+        print "\npython 2.5 not found, please install python 2.5 or 2.6 for fpdb\n"
+        exit
+else:
+    pass
+    #print "debug - not changing path"
+
+print "Python " + sys.version[0:3] + '...\n'
+
 import threading
 import Options
 import string