I assume your still using AS perl 5.6.1?

One of the best things about upgrading to AS 5.8.0 is that AS have started seperating out their PPD's by platform. Instead of having one PPD containing the binaries for all platforms. They now segregate them by platform, and seem to be making more modules available as well. They do have File::Backup (several versions) for Win32/5.8.0 available.

Also, if you know of a module that does what you want but can't find a PPD/PPM for it, then it can be worth taking a look at the cpan version. Browsing the source will tell you if the module is a pure-perl module or not -- search for the text "bootstrap". If you don't find it, then it's (usually?) a pure perl module.

File::Backup is. In this case, you can just File->Save As "site/lib/file/backup.pm". And then

perl -mFile::Backup -de1
...
Can't locate LockFile/Simple.pm in @INC (@INC contains:
 d:/Perl/lib d:/Perl/site/lib .) at
 d:/Perl/site/lib/File/Backup.pm line 14.
...
[download]

Back to search.cpan.org. Find LockFile::Simple and click the view source link.

^F "bootstrap" -- Not found. File->Save As... "site/lib/" -> New directory -> "LockFile" -> "Simple.pm" .

Try the test above again, and away you go. Of course, that doesn't run any test suites, and it's a pain when you find pure perl modules that have XS depedancies, but it's better than always going without.

I've never managed to get CPAN or CPANPLUS to work on my machine, nor succeeded in tracing through the myriad levels of seemingly endless re-directions enough to work out why that is. For XS - modules it wouldn't do me any good as I don't have the right compiler for AS, and for pure perl modules, its easier to install through my browser than work out what is wrong. I think I'm in a minority (of one?) for feeling this way, but it works for me.