In my experience, you're far better off finding binary versions of Windows Perl modules than you are trying to compile and build them yourself, especially if you have little or no experience compiling things under Windows. Since you imply that you're using ActiveState Perl, then you probably have a 'PPM' program you can use to locate and install binary versions of modules. Is there one for XML::Twig?

Further, if there's some inconsistency or error in the way Perl's configuration is describing your architecture or the location of Perl itself, that may be a bug with your ActiveState implementation of Perl. Note that if you've purchased your copy of ActivePerl, you're entitled to support from ActiveState. Otherwise, I'd still take a moment to review their web site, as they've probably documented lots of quirks like this there. You may also want to consider re-installing Perl in, say, C:\Perl instead of under a directory with a space in its name. This may help work around some modules' build/installation shortcomings. I don't believe ActivePerl installs itself under C:\Program Files by default.

Lastly, if developers are making stupid assumptions while coding their modules that make it unusable or unbuildable on Windows, I'd shoot them an e-mail and see if they have any recommendations.

Hope this helps.