BEGIN {
  open STDERR,">",'C:/perl-errors.txt' or die "Can't redirect errors: 
+$!";
}
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That will save all STDERR messages (like those from warn(), die() and compiler errors to the file.

If the error log doesn't give you enough information to figure out the problem, please post the error and the relevant code. It's not easy debugging programs with only an informal description of the program and no error messages.

Can you clarify what you mean by startup? When Windows boots, the services are started and then the commands in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, RunOnce and RunOnceEx registry keys are executed. When an individual user logs into Windows, a similar set of registry keys under HKEY_CURRENT_USER are executed. In addition to that, the login script (if configured) will be run. The contents of the Startup menu will also be executed.

The nature of the problems that you may experience differ depending on which part of the process you are trying to use.

I have had similar problems with Perl scripts in the Startup folder. I think it might have to do with certain environment variables (like PATH) not being properly initialized, because the following worked for me. Caveat emptor: I haven't thoroughly diagnosed this; the fix below fixed it, and I didn't investigate any further, YMMV.

@ECHO OFF
REM -- this is a .CMD script named 'C:\sperl.cmd' to launch Perl at st
+artup.

set PERL_BIN=C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe

echo == %1 >> C:\startup.log
%PERL_BIN% -w %* 1>>C:\startup.log 2>&1
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This is called like:

C:\sperl.cmd C:\path\to\script.pl and some args
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A file named C:\startup.log is appended to: I have a logon script that erases this file before the Startup folder is ever executed, so you'll have to address that issue as well.

I had an issue like this one time when running a scheduled task. It had something to do with the account in which it was running under because the script lived on a network share. Make sure "system" has correct rights and try the examples from above. If I remember right I had to have the script on C:\ then do some "net use" to map a drive. At one point I think we used the account that is always logged in at the console? hope that helps