And that nailed it! Thanks Anonymous.

Doing this: 
cpan> o conf makepl_arg make=dmake
    makepl_arg         [make=dmake]
commit: wrote 'C:\strawberry\perl\lib/CPAN/Config.pm'

[download]
Allowed me to actually install my first CPAN module in Strawberry Perl on Windows: 
C:\strawberry
> cpan OLE::Storage_Lite
CPAN: CPAN::SQLite loaded ok (v0.199)
Database was generated on Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:36:49 GMT
Running install for module 'OLE::Storage_Lite'
Running make for J/JM/JMCNAMARA/OLE-Storage_Lite-0.19.tar.gz
CPAN: Digest::SHA loaded ok (v5.61)
CPAN: Compress::Zlib loaded ok (v2.034)
Checksum for C:\strawberry\cpan\sources\authors\id\J\JM\JMCNAMARA\OLE-
+Storage_Lite-0.19.tar.gz ok
CPAN: Archive::Tar loaded ok (v1.76)
CPAN: File::Temp loaded ok (v0.22)
CPAN: Parse::CPAN::Meta loaded ok (v1.4401)
CPAN: CPAN::Meta loaded ok (v2.110930)
CPAN: Module::CoreList loaded ok (v2.46)

  CPAN.pm: Going to build J/JM/JMCNAMARA/OLE-Storage_Lite-0.19.tar.gz

Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for OLE::Storage_Lite
Could not read metadata file. Falling back to other methods to determi
+ne prerequisites
cp lib/OLE/Storage_Lite.pm blib\lib\OLE\Storage_Lite.pm
  JMCNAMARA/OLE-Storage_Lite-0.19.tar.gz
  C:\strawberry\c\bin\dmake.EXE -- OK
Running make test
C:\strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "test_h
+arness(0, 'blib\lib', 'blib\arch')" t/*.t
t/00_load.t ............. ok
t/01_date_conversion.t .. ok
All tests successful.
Files=2, Tests=199,  2 wallclock secs ( 0.06 usr +  0.08 sys =  0.14 C
+PU)
Result: PASS
  JMCNAMARA/OLE-Storage_Lite-0.19.tar.gz
  C:\strawberry\c\bin\dmake.EXE test -- OK
Running make install
Prepending C:\strawberry\cpan\build\OLE-Storage_Lite-0.19-bImzpP/blib/
+arch C:\strawberry\cpan\build\OLE-Storage_Lite-0.19-bImzpP/bli
b/lib to PERL5LIB for 'install'
Installing C:\strawberry\perl\site\lib\OLE\Storage_Lite.pm
Appending installation info to C:\strawberry\perl\lib/perllocal.pod
  JMCNAMARA/OLE-Storage_Lite-0.19.tar.gz
  C:\strawberry\c\bin\dmake.EXE install UNINST=1 -- OK

[download]
Of course, I undid my modification of the wrong cpan conf option first: 
cpan> o conf make_arg ""
    make_arg           []
commit: wrote 'C:\strawberry\perl\lib/CPAN/Config.pm'

[download]

I have no idea what was so special about my Windows installation that this option was not set from the beginning in Strawberry Perl, but I consider this solved for my part.

In reply to Re^7: Strawberry Perl 5.12.3, CPAN, make file problems (dmake.exe), DFSEP and backslash "\" by jffry
in thread Strawberry Perl 5.12.3, CPAN, make file problems (dmake.exe), DFSEP and backslash "\" by jffry

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