PAR is best installed from PPM, true. I have noticed that the ActivateState repositories (which I am thankful for, BTW) are a little stale for PAR. If you want the "--gui" option to run Perl/Tk apps without the DOS box popping up, for instance, you'll need to install PAR from CPAN.

I can't remember whether PAR required a compiler (which would be the non-free MSVC) or not. Methinks not. There are a ton of dependencies though, most of which you can hopefully pull from PPM before you start.

I'd like ActiveState to update their PPM database more frequently, but being they are doing us a great service in having what they have, I can't complain.