Instructions for Installing PHP on Windows

NOTE: some of you have asked that the older version of the tutorial with PHP 4.3.x be put back up. I am putting it back up, but will no longer update it. You can still find it at http://www.ricocheting.com/server/php4.html, however I recommend using the tutorial below with PHP 5.1.

Download & Unpack
Download and install PHP from http://www.php.net/downloads.php, you should grab the newest 5.x.x Windows Binary zip package that will work on apache.

My file was named: php-5.1.1-Win32.zip
Unzip php. In my case, I unzipped to:
e:\php\
Rename e:\php\php.ini-dist it to php.ini
Edit your php.ini
Open php.ini in a text editor and scroll down about halfway through the file and look for doc_root then change it to point to whatever your Apache DocumentRoot is set to. In my case: doc_root = "e:\public_html"

Scroll down about 7 more lines and change the extension_dir from extension_dir = "./" to the location of the ext directory after you unzipped PHP. in my case: extension_dir = "e:\php\ext"

Another thing you might want to change is you session path. Search for: session.save_path and uncomment (remove the ; mark) and change it to an existing directory. One reader pointed out the Window's temporary directory works well. So session.save_path = "c:/windows/temp" or if you use Win2k maybe session.save_path = "c:/WINNT/Temp"

If you are going to be using your server for testing, i recommend (this is optional) you search and change the error reporting to give you info on any errors, notices, or bad coding. If you want to enable this type of stuff, look for and change:
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT
to
error_reporting = E_ALL | E_NOTICE | E_STRICT
Editing Apache Conf File
Using Notepad open e:\Apache2\conf\httpd.conf (in the start-menu there should also be a "Edit the Apache HTTP Server httpd.conf Configuration File" shortcut). Either at the very beginning or end of the file add the following lines: (NOTE: be sure to change the e:/php/php5apache2.dll to the directory you installed your php to and change e:/php to the directory the php.ini file is in)
```
	LoadModule php5_module "e:/php/php5apache2.dll"
	AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
	PHPIniDir "e:/php"
```
Testing
Restart Apache if it is already running (if it doesn't start or you get errors, use your Apache "Test Configuration" shortcut in the Start Menu to see why).

To test your PHP simply create a test.php file and put these 3 lines into it. (When loaded in your browser, you should get a whole long list of php variables, settings, etc):
```
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
```
Documentation Suggestion
One weird thing I have noticed about PHP is that it does not come with documentation of any kind. If you are a php developer/programmer, I suggest you download the documentation. Downloads can be found on http://www.php.net/download-docs.php and I personally recommend the "English - Windows HTML Help" (chm) version as the search is so handy, although they all contain the same information.

Download & Unpack

Edit your php.ini

Editing Apache Conf File

Testing

Documentation Suggestion