found solution by editing the the win32::IEAutomaiton module. addeded the below.

sub getLink2{
    my ($self, $how, $what) = @_;
    my $agent = $self->{agent};
    #my $links = $agent->Document->links;
    my $links = $agent->Document->all->tags("a");
    my $target_link = __getObject($links, $how, $what) if ($links);
    my $link_object;
    if ($target_link){
        $link_object = Win32::IEAutomation::Element->new();
        $link_object->{element} = $target_link;
        $link_object->{parent} = $self;
    }else{
        $link_object = undef;
        print "WARNING: No link is  present in the document with your 
+specified option $how $what\n" if $warn;
    }
    return $link_object;
}
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thank you very much for posting your solution. I would have been stuck without this.