in reply to PPM not working in Perl 5.8.0.

Control panel - System, tab "advanced", button "Environment variables", add <path to the bin directory> to the PATH variable. You shouldn't have to reboot.

But you can first test it's correct working by navigating to the bin directory and execute the ppm tool.

I use the Active perl and ppm myself under XP and it is my favourite distribution. I especially like the ppm GUI:-)