One thing is to add more repositories to ppm. Go into Edit|Preferences|Repositories. The U of Winnipeg site sometimes has stuff not available yet in the main repository - of course ppm will slow down for the db re-sync when more repositories are involved.

One big thing that slows down package availability for Windows is when some Unix feature is used that doesn't work on Windows. A pure Perl module can show up pretty fast, I noticed that WWW-sitemap-XML was just released a couple of days ago on CPAN.

If you do get into the business of making some module yourself for Active Perl, use ppm to install mingw, the C compiler (yes, that is a package in ppm!) - that will also install the proper kind of make. However as I mentioned before, some work can be required as probably some test is failing due to some Unix thing not working on Windows.

I have only:

http://ppm4.activestate.com/MSWin32-x86/5.8/820/package.xml
[download]

in the list of "Edit|Preferences|Repositories" as you recommended. I did not understand what I should do next to include more repositories.

I don't know why you sent the above link. It is irrelevant. Start the GUI version of ppm by just typing "ppm" with no args at the command prompt. The command line interface still works, but I think you will find the GUI easier to use.

"Edit|Preferences|Repositories" is short hand for showing how to navigate the GUI buttons. Top of screen shows active repositories. There is a whole screen section called "Add repositories" and a pull down menu that you can select more repositories from. It is hard for me to understand how you can actually get to this screen and not see the buttons to do the adds.

I think all you need will be in the main ActiveState repository. Note that every time you start ppm GUI it will resync/update the list of available packages.

You never answered question: what packages are you looking for?

Which modules are you looking for? Are you aware ActiveState has shipped with CPAN for quite some time now, and that you can use it to install modules? Have you added all known PPM Repositories via PPM::Repositories?

Try strawberry. Which module(s) are you trying to get? We can help to check strawberry.

Suggesting moving to Strawberry Perl may not be a viable/sensible option under certain circumstances, when ActiveState Perl can install modules from cpan.