After a non-admin install of Python 2.3 with Python 2.2 
admin-installed, I got:

C:\Python23\Lib\idlelib>c:\python23\python idle.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "idle.py", line 23, in ?
    idlelib.PyShell.main()
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 1277, in 
main
    flist.pyshell = PyShell(flist)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 721, in 
__init__
    OutputWindow.__init__(self, flist, None, None)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\OutputWindow.py", line 16, 
in __init__
    EditorWindow.__init__(self, *args)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\EditorWindow.py", line 181, 
in __init__
    self.UpdateRecentFilesList()
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\EditorWindow.py", line 580, 
in UpdateRecentFilesList
    RFfile=open(self.recentFilesPath,'r')
IOError: [Errno13] Permission denied: 'F:\\.idlerc\\recent-
files.lst'

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I have a login to a university server, and the F drive is 
the user drive. I don't recall specifying that anything 
should be kept on the F drive, and would prefer that 
recent files be kept on the local machine.

Changing my own permissions to .idlerc to allow full 
permissions, and to apply these permissions to contents, 
worked and resolved the problem, except that multiple 
users use the same network drive and will now share 
recent files.

Idle 1.0 under the brand-spanking-new Python2.3, with 
Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 
2600.

Logged In: YES 
user_id=21627

IDLE first tries %HOME%, then %HOMEDRIVE%/%HOMEPATH%
The latter is the system convention, so IDLE should follow it.

So setting the HOME environment variable should fix this
problem.

Is this a sufficient solution?

Logged In: YES 
user_id=149084

What are the vaules of
HOME
HOMEDRIVE
USERPROFILE
on your machine?

Logged In: YES 
user_id=149084

No response from OP, change status to Pending.