I recommend you use a precompiled binary - you can find a ppm here If you want to compile it yourself read this tutorial I put up a year or two ago: A Practical Guide to Compiling C based Modules under ActiveState using Microsoft C++. Note that as well as cl.exe and link.exe you also need all the header and library files, in the right spots, with the correct ENV vars set of cl will choke. To give you an idea we commonly use a compact version of VCC with just cl, the linkers, assemblers and the header and library files. It is 18MB zipped (70MB odd unzipped). This is a lot better than VCC which is 2GB for a full install and takes several hours.

FWIW It installs perfectly (just tested it on a Win32 box) you just need a working compiler setup

[snip]
cp lib/Template/Directive.pm blib\lib\Template\Directive.pm
cp lib/Template/Manual/Refs.pod blib\lib\Template\Manual\Refs.pod
cp lib/Template/Plugin/XML/DOM.pm blib\lib\Template\Plugin\XML\DOM.pm
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib D:\Perl\lib\E
+xtUtils/xsubpp  -typemap D:\Perl\lib\ExtUtils\typemap Stash.xs > Stas
+h
.xsc && D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib -MExtUtils::C
+ommand -e mv Stash.xsc Stash.c
        cl -c  -nologo -O1 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -DWIN32 -D_CONSOLE -DNO_ST
+RICT -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -D
+P
ERL_MSVCRT_READFIX -O1 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG    -DVERSION=\"2.13\"  -DXS_VE
+RSION=\"2.13\"  -ID:\Perl\lib\CORE  Stash.c
Stash.c
"Running Mkbootstrap for Template::Stash::XS ()"
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib -MExtUtils::C
+ommand -e chmod 644 XS.bs
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe "-ID:\Perl\lib" "-ID:\Perl\lib" -MExtUtil
+s::Mksymlists  -e "Mksymlists('NAME' => 'Template::Stash::XS', 'DLBAS
+E
' => 'XS', 'DL_FUNCS' => {  }, 'FUNCLIST' => [], 'IMPORTS' => {  }, 'D
+L_VARS' => []);"
        link -out:..\blib\arch\auto\Template\Stash\XS\XS.dll -dll -nol
+ogo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf  -libpath:"D:\Perl\lib\CORE"  -
+m
achine:x86 Stash.obj   D:\Perl\lib\CORE\perl56.lib oldnames.lib kernel
+32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib  comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib s
+h
ell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netapi32.lib uuid.lib wsock32.lib mp
+r.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib msvcrt.lib -def:
+X
S.def
   Creating library ..\blib\arch\auto\Template\Stash\XS\XS.lib and obj
+ect ..\blib\arch\auto\Template\Stash\XS\XS.exp
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib -MExtUtils::C
+ommand -e chmod 755 ..\blib\arch\auto\Template\Stash\XS\XS.dll
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib -MExtUtils::C
+ommand -e cp XS.bs ..\blib\arch\auto\Template\Stash\XS\XS.bs
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib -MExtUtils::C
+ommand -e chmod 644 ..\blib\arch\auto\Template\Stash\XS\XS.bs
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib -MExtUtils::C
+ommand -e cp bin/ttree blib\script\ttree
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib  -e "system q
+q[pl2bat.bat ].shift" blib\script\ttree
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib -MExtUtils::C
+ommand -e cp bin/tpage blib\script\tpage
        D:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -ID:\Perl\lib -ID:\Perl\lib  -e "system q
+q[pl2bat.bat ].shift" blib\script\tpage

C:\Template-Toolkit-2.13>
[download]