Installing Perl from Active State
Active State is a wonderful website for developers who want to run Perl on Windows PC's. Active State has already done all the hard work to get perl completely ready to install on your machine. They've created a version of Perl that runs on Windows without any fussing around at all.
So, get ready to do a 9MByte download. It's best to choose "save this file to disk" rather than "open this file from its current location", although either option should work.
If you are using Windows Me, you can download the install program of Perl for Windows in MSI format. This version is prepared in Microsoft Installer (MSI) format which works with Windows Me. This did not work for me when I tried it with Win 98. Once you have this perl installation file downloaded, let it rip. It's best to accept all the default installation settings. After the installation, you'll find it in the c:\perl directory. You'll rarely need to go there directly though.
If you are on Windows 98 or 95, download the install program of Perl for Windows in Zip format. This alternate version is a zip file, and it should install on older machines that don't have MSI. Once you have the perl installation file downloaded, unzip it into an empty directory. You should get a program called installer.bat and a folder called ActivePerl. Bring up a DOS session, navigate to that folder and type:
installer
It's best to accept all the default installation settings by hitting enter to all questions. It will eventually respond with
Thank you for installing ActivePerl!
After the installation, you'll find your new software in the c:\perl directory. You'll rarely need to go there directly though.
Important! You need to reboot after a new installation to pick up the new path in the autoexec.bat file before you can run Perl. It doesn't matter how you installed it. Just reboot before going any further.
To test your installation once you've installed perl and rebooted, bring up a DOS window. It doesn't matter what directory you are in for now. Just type in:
perl -v
and you should get back a screenful of version information from perl. If you get a "bad command or filename" message,
perl isn't properly set up. Did you reboot after the installation? If all else fails,
email me and I'll see if I can offer any help.
Assuming your perl installation is healthy, continue on and either
Return to Perl Introduction
or
Install Personal Web Server
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