As someone who has to install a lot of software on 100+ pcs I know where you are coming from. But one thing i notice from the java world is that nearly all java apps ship with a /jre folder containing the exact Java version that the project was built on, as well as a .bat file to set environmental variables and start the app. I imagine if I ever get around to doing a full network install of one of my perl programs I might do something similar(I'm the only developer here who codes in Perl).Make a folder with a copy of the necessary perl executables modules and dll's to make the app work and deploy it

I imagine the batch file for such an app in perl would look like this.

set PATH=%PATH%;.\Perl\bin
perl application.pl
[download]

Then copy a short cut to that batch to either "C:/Windows/Desktop" "C:/WINNT/Profiles/All Users/Desktop" or "C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Desktop/" or the equivalent start menu folders, Depending on the windows version you are deploying to. That way your users can start the app easily and you can run the install in a script or as a WinZip or InstallSheild type of copyover install without going through the hassle of installing Perl(and possibly Microsoft Installer)on every machine. In fact this is more or less what the perl2exe and perlapp programs do, they just hide all that stuff in a huge exe, and as your example shows they are more likely to fail from time to time.