The way Win32 locates .dll dependancies of .exe's, is to first look in the directory where the executable is run from, before looking in various other standard places and finally looking in the directories specified in the PATH environment variable.

Your rather confusing description suggests that perl58.dll was located correctly when you did the install of dbi.ppd, otherwise the 'missing dll' error would have been reported at that point. Perl is probably installed correctly.

So, for this problem to occur when you are running your CGI script, it must mean that you (or more likely, your web server) is invoking a different copy of perl.exe.

If you copied perl.exe somewhere, and you did not also copy perl58.dll to the same location, then unless the bin directory of your standard installation is

1. in your path -- eg. PATH= ....;C:\Program Files\ejd\perl\bin;...
2. And the userid used by your webserver has the appropriate permissions to access that directory

There is no way for the OS to locate the dll.

You need to talk to a local LAN administrator in order to get your web server set up correctly. This isn't a perl problem.

And while your talking with them about that, you should also ask them about the PPM problem and see if whatever local restrictions are preventing you using PPM can be lifted or worked around.

Installing PPD's manually is a tricky business and requires a level of understanding that is is clear that you do not currently possess.