+See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this.
+
+=head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Make
+
+You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
+Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake
+will work. All other builds need dmake.
+
+dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
+and parallelability.
+
+A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
+
+ http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
+
+Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
+
+There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
+compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
+case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
+with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
+to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
+For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
+needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you
+may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is
+available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
+
+=item Command Shell
+
+Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the
+popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
+If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
+shell.
+
+The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the
+"command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to
+use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x.
+
+The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd shell.
+
+Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
+build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
+
+=item Borland C++
+
+If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
+(The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
+work for MakeMaker builds.)
+
+See L</"Make"> above.
+
+=item Microsoft Visual C++
+
+The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
+You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
+like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
+This will set your build environment.
+
+You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
+you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
+under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
+and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
+latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
+make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
+
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition
+
+This free version of Visual C++ 2008 Professional contains the same compiler
+and linker that ship with the full version, and also contains everything
+necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download of the
+Platform SDK like previous versions did.
+
+This package can be downloaded by searching for "Visual Studio 2008 Express
+Edition" in the Download Center at
+http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
+links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
+changing so often.)
+
+Install Visual C++ 2008, then setup your environment using
+
+ C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
+
+(assuming the default installation location was chosen).
+
+Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
+file to set
+
+ CCTYPE = MSVC90FREE
+
+first.
+
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
+
+This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
+and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
+necessary to build Perl.
+
+You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
+SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
+
+These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
+http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
+links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
+changing so often.)
+
+Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes these packages
+contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
+other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
+also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
+
+According to the download pages these packages are only supported on Windows
+2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows 95/98/ME and even Windows
+NT probably won't work.
+
+Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
+as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
+
+ SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
+
+ SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
+
+ SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
+
+ SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
+
+ SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
+
+(The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
+you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
+while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
+"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
+
+Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
+file to set
+
+ CCTYPE = MSVC80FREE
+
+and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.