Installing Perl on Windows Machines
ActivePerl is a very nice free implementation of Perl. It runs on Windows machines, on Macs, and under Linux/Unix. The instructions below assume you are working on a Windows machine. Go to the following link and follow the steps below: http://www.activestate.com/Products/Download/Download.plex?id=ActivePerl Step 1: You can select the language you are interested in by pressing the appropriate button in the gray bar at the top of the screen. Click the Perl button at the right of the screen as shown:
Step 2: You will want to download the Standard Distribution. Click Download in the box labeled Standard Distribution as shown in the screen shot below.
Step 3: You will now be asked to enter some information about yourself. This is optional. After completing the information (or not) , click the Next button at the bottom of the page.
Step 4: Use the MSI installer that you can select as shown below. However, before installing Perl on your machine, you should make sure that your system meets the minimum requirements given below. Minumum requirements for Windows installation
All Windows platforms: IE 5.5+ Windows 95: DCOM for Windows 95 Windows NT: Service Pack 5+ Windows Installer requirements If you are using an older version of Windows, you will need to download a system update in order to install ActivePerl. o For Win95/98/Me o For WinNT/2000 o Windows XP does not need to be updated o Windows Server 2003 does not need to be updated Perl for ISAPI: ISAPI compatible Web server such as IIS 4.0+ or PWS 4.0+ PerlScript: ActiveX scripting host such as IE 4.0+, or Windows Scripting Host
Follow the prompts to install Perl using the default parameters. Step 5: After finishing, check to make sure Perl is installed correctly by running perl –v at the command line.
Step 6: Here is some simple trouble shooting that may be helpful if you do not get Perl to run. Right click on the My Computer icon and then select Properties. You should get a page like the one below. Select the Advanced tab. There is a button at the bottom of the page called Environment Variables like the one shown below.
After you have clicked Environment Variables, you should see a window like the one below. In the box at the bottom labeled System Variables, click the line called Path. This will bring up a simple edit box. You will need to add the path where you have installed Perl to the path, but you should not change anything else. Add C:\Perl\bin\ at the front of the list followed by a semicolon as shown below (ignore the C:\php shown in the picture).
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