What is ActivePerl?:

ActivePerl is a distribution - or pre-configured, ready-to-install package - of Perl. Since Perl is open source, it's freely available to anyone and, in fact, standard install on most Unix / Linux machines. ActiveState has taken that standard install of Perl and created nice, neat packages for quick installation on Windows (and other) systems. Since it remains open source, ActiveState offers it as a free download on their web site.

Where can I get it?:

Go to ActiveState's ActivePerl home page. Click on 'Free Download'. There is no need to fill out any of this contact information in order to download ActivePerl. Click 'Next' when you're ready, and on the next page, scroll down the list to find the Windows distribution. To download it, right click on the MSI (MicroSoft Installer) file and choose 'Save As'. Download the MSI file to your desktop.

How do I install it?:

Double click on the MSI file to run it. Click 'Next' on the first screen. Check the 'I Accept' radio button once you've read the agreement, then click 'Next'. I would suggest leaving everything as it is set on this screen, and click 'Next'. On the next screen, again leave all the options as they are, and click 'Next' one more time. Click 'Install' and wait for the process to complete. Finally, uncheck the 'display release notes' option, and click 'Finish'. Delete the MSI file.

How do I know it's working?:

Run a quick program on the command line and see if you get some output.

Create a new text file and call it 'test.pl'. Copy and paste the following line into 'test.pl' and save it on your C: drive:

print "Testing Perl.\n";

Click on the Windows 'Start' menu, choose 'Run...', and type 'cmd'. At the prompt, type 'perl test.pl' and you should see your program print 'Testing Perl.'.

Additional Information:

For more detailed information, I suggest looking through the ActivePerl documentation that was installed on your system with Perl. You can also visit the ActivePerl web site, and of course perl.com - the original source.