Since I had some problem installing opencv and feel that I'm not alone, I'm starting this topic hoping nobody has to read through the other very long topics to find out what to do. Please reply only if you have success and be specific what operating system you use. Here's mine:

OS: XP 32bit SP2, Vista Home basic 32-bit, Vista Home premium 64-bit.

I downloaded opencv1.1pre1a zip file and installed it first. I did check the checklist to automatically insert the line in path.

After install, I didn't see the line get inserted. I did the following: find the install folder and its .\bin\ sub folder, which is C:\Program Files\OpenCV\bin. I inserted this line to the system path variable in the very beginning like: C:\Program Files\OpenCV\bin;(rest of the path already in existence).

After this, all the demo .exe programs under C:\Program Files\OpenCV\samples\c start running.

Next I downloaded opencv's processing library opencv_01 and its associated example file. I unzipped everything under processing\libraries so there is an opencv folder there.

I restarted my computer and I can run the processing examples with openCV. It worked on all computers and os I tried.