On Win32, I usually look for modules on CPAN, and download them from there.

If the distribution is made up of Perl, documentation and tests, I breathe a sigh of relief and install by hand as normal, in my case:

  perl makefile.pl
  nmake
  nmake test
  nmake install
[download]

(I use the version of nmake downloadable from Microsoft's website.) I have to admit that the fact that I run nmake test is mainly superstitious. Even if errors are reported, I have very little idea of what I'm supposed to do with that (sometimes I look at the test and see that it failed because it was hard-coded with Unix system calls, very portable).

If the distribution contains any C files (extensions .c, .xs etc.) that need compilation, I curse loudly and profanely. I've mainly given up trying to use ppm to install from repositories - it sometimes works, but it's failed on 2 separate installations of Perl, is slow, the help system is awful, and sometimes the only way to fix it is to hand- edit the XML configuration file... (Apparently ppm3 is better). So I go to ActiveState's site, search around for the downloadable .zip distributions which may or may not be there (see CrazyInsomniac's useful thread). If it's there I download it and install it locally using ppm. If it's not there I tend to give up at this point (though that thread includes details of various other repositories).

Update: Oh, and testing: that I'm aware, ppm runs no tests, and provides no way of giving feedback.

Cheerio!
Osfameron
http://osfameron.perlmonk.org/chickenman/

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