I assume that most people dealing with this issue have installed Excel::Writer::XLSX. If ActiveState doesn't offer it, maybe you need to contact their (paid) support for old versions of Perl?

An alternative could be to just use a more recent version of Perl for your tool.

If ActiveState doesn't offer it, maybe you need to contact their (paid) support for old versions of Perl?

There is a lock icon next to 5.8 at http://code.activestate.com/ppm/Excel-Writer-XLSX/, and if you click it, it shows there is a really old version available (if you have username/password) for 5.8 ... makes sense, really old perl is really old :)

An alternative could be to just use a more recent version of Perl for your tool.

or *cough*cough* just use cpanp/cpanm to install the latest Excel::Writer::XLSX from cpan, its pure perl after all :)

I guess cpanp needs a newer perl to work? as it is not recognized on Windows

Your question is bit ambiguous. Do you need a XLSX parser or a XLSX writer?

If you have all required parsers installed, you can have a look at Spreadsheet::Read.

I need an XLSX parser that a) works on windows b) works with perl 5.8.9 If b) is not possible, the question is: by going to the most recent activestate, can I get it and how likely is it to get incompatibility with existing scripts?

The CPAN Tester Matrix for Spreadsheet::XLSX suggests that the module passes its tests on 5.8.9.