Download ActivePerl. Download Latest Stable Source (5.28.1). ActiveState Perl ActiveState offers both a free community version and a commercially. Having an issue with the ActivePerl-5.14.2.1402-MSWin32-x64-295342.msi. I am trying to configure the msi to install the files to the 64-bit Program Files folder in Windows 7 64-bit.
Software Application Disclaimer The text above is not a recommendation to remove ActivePerl 5.14.2 Build 1402 (64-bit) by ActiveState from your computer, nor are we saying that ActivePerl 5.14.2 Build 1402 (64-bit) by ActiveState is not a good application for your PC. This text simply contains detailed info on how to remove ActivePerl 5.14.2 Build 1402 (64-bit) supposing you decide this is what you want to do. Here you can find registry and disk entries that our application Advanced Uninstaller PRO discovered and classified as 'leftovers' on other users' PCs.
First, go to, From here you can either click on the 'Perl' link in the top banner, or hover your mouse pointer over 'Languages' in the red bar and then click on 'ActivePerl Family' in the dropbox that appears. On the next page, click on 'ActivePerl' under 'ActivePerl Family'. (You're getting close. Don't give up yet!) At the bottom of the page, click 'DOWNLOAD', then either fill in the blanks on the next page or not and click 'Next'. (ActiveState doesn't require contact info.) This page gives you several options.
The first thing you should do is check out the 'minimum requirements' link in the middle column. (The three columns being the download list, an info column, and then the 'Register. Download' column. If you're running Windows XP, you're set and don't really need to worry about this.
The left column should say 'ActivePerl' and then a version number. Choose the most recent version and download the MSI package under the Windows heading. BEFORE CONTINUING: Make sure you have Administrator privileges on your computer. If you don't, you'll have more work to do after installing.
Simply run the MSI (an executable) and follow the installation guidelines. If, for one reason or another, you cannot install from the MSI, go back to ActivePerl's web space and download the AS package (a.zip file). The ActivePerl site explicitly states, 'The Windows AS Package provides NO uninstall functionality, and is recommended only if you are unable to install ActivePerl using the MSI installer.' (What this basically means is that you'll have to manually uninstall it if you ever want to get rid of it.) You can now write Perl programs in any text editor (like Notepad, but turn wordwrap off) and run them through the Command Prompt using the 'perl' command, just like all the other OSes.
(Command Prompt is in Start All Programs Accessories OR Start Programs Accessories for non-XP systems.) This should work for any version of Windows. Please be sure to check the system requirements listed on ActiveState's download page to be sure your machine/OS can handle it. ADDENDUM ActivePerl is not the only Perl for Windows out there, it is simply the first that I came accross. As noted by, there is also at (directions listed in his reply below). CygWin is basically, for all intents and puposes, a Linix shell emulator for PC. See their site for more details. I also want to mention a very helpful tool for me when writing is the VI Improved (VIM) text editor, available at.
It's free and has many features to help you with coding, including (but not limited to) auto-indenting, color highlighting, and multiple computer language support. VIM is what I learned on in school, used when I had Linux, and is a great tool even on a Windows based machine. Last update 2004.
Replies are listed 'Best First'. By (Canon) on Jul 28, 2004 at 22:46 UTC Alternatively, go to and click on 'install cygwin now'.
Make sure you installl the scripting option. After that you can write perl programs as described above and you can start them from the bash shell as long as you make then executable and set the #!
Line (basically, follow the UNIX instructions) If you feel up to it, you can also compile perl from source using either cygwin with gcc and GNU make, or microsoft VC and nmake. By (Acolyte) on Jul 14, 2012 at 16:18 UTC If you install Perl using Cygwin, it will currently install perl 5.10. Cygwin will install 5.14 if you ask it to in the installer GUI, but thereafter, every time you run the Cygwin installer to update any packages, you will have to go back to the entry for Perl and tell it not to uninstall 5.14 and replace it with 5.10, which it always wants to do. By (Canon) on Jul 29, 2004 at 01:18 UTC Don't install the AS package unless you absolutely have to do so. It doesn't totally function the same as the version installed by the MSI. ActiveState has this to say about the AS package: 'The Windows AS Package provides NO uninstall functionality, and is recommended only if you are unable to install ActivePerl using the MSI installer.'
(The emphasis was added by me to drive how the point of this reply.) by (Abbot) on Jul 29, 2004 at 04:18 UTC That's not true (its the same perl). 'Uninstall' functionality is overrated. All you have to do i delete your perl folder, and edit the registry removing a few entries the installer (bat file) makes, which do things like associate perl.exe with.pl files, etc.
'you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!' I run a Win32 PPM for perl and - I take requests. The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.
By (Canon) on Jul 29, 2004 at 23:45 UTC I know that it's supposed to be but it's not necessarily the same perl. I downloaded and installed it about a year (or year and a half) ago to see what all was different. My guess is that it doesn't set all of the necessary registry settings that the MSI sets. Once it was 'installed', there were lots of things that didn't work; one of which was PPM. I know there were other pieces that didn't work either but the moment I can't recall. It's just been too long. This was on a Win98 machine so that might have had something to do with it too.
By (Abbot) on Jul 30, 2004 at 13:01 UTC by (Deacon) on Jan 26, 2006 at 14:22 UTC An even easier method of installing a full working Perl system under Windows is now available:. It downloads and installs ActivePerl, Dev-C and nmake to provide a Perl environment that is compatible with CPAN (as well as ActiveState's PPM). Here's all you have to do:. Download the setup.exe, and then run it. For the Dev-C pack, you can just install the 'MinGW compiler system' option if you don't want the full IDE. Then run cpan to get it configured.
Remember: There's always one more bug. By (Priest) on Jul 29, 2004 at 04:23 UTC I was going to downvote your overly simplistic node, but then I realized that most Window users can't tolerate reading more than 3 small paragraphs of technical jargon anyway. by (Priest) on Jul 29, 2004 at 17:03 UTC Man, that is cold. (but true from my experience):) davidj by (Deacon) on Jun 03, 2014 at 10:08 UTC I strongly suggest to avoid installation directory paths containing spaces. The reason is: later when adding modules, Makefiles generated by most probably will not work.
The needed extra quoting for spaces in nested Makefile variables is very complex and not supported by MakeMaker. I often had this problem when being forced to use a company installed perl in C: Program Files. By (Initiate) on Apr 15, 2008 at 13:18 UTC I was recently looking to install perl on my windows machine in order to learn perl and CGI scripting. After I'd installed ActivePerl I then had to find a webserver to use. XAMPP installed and configured both perl and apache in one go, I'd recommend beginners go straight for that if you're just looking to quickly set up a learning environment by (Archbishop) on Apr 15, 2008 at 13:37 UTC Does XAMPP install a c compiler? The reason I ask is that I would suggest going for since I have used it for quite some time (for both business and personal use) with no problems.
Being able to use CPAN on windows is a great thing, even if you are just starting out. Installing is painless. I think that using the installer and installing/configuring would be worth the extra effort since, had the user never installed/configured Apache my themselves (by this I mean configure httpd.conf etc themselves) then IMHO it is good to know how to do this sort of thing. For further information about Perl on the Windows platform see Martin by on Apr 15, 2008 at 13:51 UTC.