Installing PHP on Windows

Installing PHP in Windows with Apache

It is assumed that you have successfully installed and configured apache on your windows machine. Please refer to my previous article in case you need guidelines to install apache.

Now since Apache is already installed on your windows, you can access localhost through browser. Now lets start installing PHP.

Installing phpmyadmin on Windows

Pre Requisite:
This is my third post in the series of enabling ICT Phase-II lab for php and php related practicals. My first post contained the details description on how to install Apache (httpd) and PHP on Windows. Before we continue I would like to inform you that This series is specifically written to install the software required to conduct the software required to conduct php related practicals in ICT - Phase -II Lab.

Setup Apache Server

Test Port 80

issue command netstat -ano on command prompt if you see any like like shown below it means that port 80 is already occupied and not available for new webserver. Port 80 is used for webservices and generally used by IIS (Internet Information Server, a Web server that comes with Microsoft Windows, or some time my be used by services like Skype or some antivirus) make sure that port 80 is free before you start installing/configuring Apache as a webserver.

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State PID

TCP 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 8848

Download Apache

Apache is a free and open source webserver available for almost all available operating systems. Apache (Webserver) is one of the component of WAMP Server or XAMPP used by many of us for working with php or any other opensource server side programming language. To install Apache (sometimes referred as httpd) we need to download it from its official website http://apache.org/ but that installation my be tedious so alternative we can download windows binary (since we are going to setup apache on Windows) from Apache Lounge from link http://www.apachelounge.com/download/. Prior to installation of apache make sure that you have Microsoft’s Windows C++ runtime already installed on your system. Just download and install Windows C++ runtime from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&DisplayLang=en just in case you are not sure, I assure that this step wont harm in any ways ;) .

Setup and configure Apache

Apache files are downloaded as zip file, extract zip file to c:\apache (or any other folder that you find suitable, I installed it on d:\apache24), wait, let me tell you that there was a folder named apache24 in zip file, thats the folder that is needed to be extracted. Fig x.x shows the content of the folder.

Once you have extracted the apache24. You need to open conf folder and and locate the file httpd.conf and open it in your favorite text editor.

1. On line 37 modify the location of server root (in my case the this like says : Define SRVROOT "d:/Apache24")
2. Check for Listen directive is set for listen on port 80 (simply search for term listen in this file. In my case the directive is present on line No 60). you may specify some other port in place of 80 in case you are unable to figure out which service has occupied port 80 or just in case you don’t want to stop/terminate that service you can use port 8000, 8080, 8800 or 8888 These are some preferrerd port for web services other that port 80. but keep in mind, in case you any other port you will have to use this port number while accessing webservice through web browser e.g. if you have configured port 8080, you will have to visit http://localhost:8080.
3. Search for section and modify AllowOverride none to AllowOverride All
   in all the locations within this file.
4. Search for DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs", remember that you have set the SRVROOT in first step here you are saying that document root is htdocs folder on your serverver root. This is the location where you will be required to put all you webpages, or php files to be accessed through internet (browser).
5. Save this file (httpd.conf).

Test and start Apache Web Server

On terminal (command prompt) go to bin folder under apache24. (you will need to enter some DOS Commands, ask me if you want to know the commands.) and issue httpd -t to test httpd.conf. This command will display errors, if no error appears, it means that you are ready to start your web server. Now just issue following command on terminal to install apache as a windows service (which will automatically starts whenever you start your computer.

httpd -k install

To check if server is working fine, open your favorite web browser and type localhost on its address bar then hit enter. If you see “It Works” on your browser, it means that you have successfully installed apache on windows machine.

You can also access your webserver using http://127.0.0.1 or using http://IPAddressOfMachine from any computer on network.

Although when you install apache using httpd -k install command, apache gets added to windows service which can be managed using services.msc. You can set apache service to start automatically whenever system boots.

Next Article will be installing PHP on Windows and run it through Apache webserver.