Step by Step Guide Install PHP on Windows 7

Install PHP on Windows 7 is another post of Building Home Server series. In first post I have cover Apache installation on Windows 7. Today I’ll continue with PHP. I use PHP since 2000, PHP at that moment reach version 4.0 and I’m surprised with its movement. PHP widely adopted as one of standard for web based program and used by big company out there.

Download PHP & Preparation

Choose PHP Version

At time of writing this post, PHP version that used in production are version 5.2.xxx and 5.3.xx .

I recommend to download latest version of PHP 5.2.xxx due to majority of web hosting out there support PHP 5.2.xx.

Non Thread Safe or Thread Save

Install PHP On Windows 7

Extract file to C:\php

Extract the file to C :\ and rename the folder to php.

Create php.ini file

Copy file php.ini-dist and rename that file back to php.ini

Confirmation window will appear confirm that if you change a file name extension, the file might become unusable.

On Windows 7 the icon for .ini file is special. You can use that as parameter for rename process.

Checking if PHP successfully Installed

Create phpinfo file

Create new file with notepad and save it to c:\php with name info.php

The content of that file

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Open command prompt of Windows 7

(type command in BOLD)

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\LAPTOP>cd c:\php

c:\php>php -v
PHP 5.2.14 (cli) (built: Jul 27 2010 10:49:36)
Copyright (c) 1997-2010 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies

c:\php>php -q info.php

Bunch of result will show up. If you see that it means PHP successfully installed.