Manual Installation Steps
This install guide will help you manually install and configure PHP with a web server on Microsoft Windows. To get started you'll need to download the zip binary distribution from the downloads page at » https://www.php.net/downloads.php.
Although there are many all-in-one installation kits, and we also distribute a PHP installer for Microsoft Windows, we recommend you take the time to setup PHP yourself as this will provide you with a better understanding of the system, and enables you to install PHP extensions easily when needed.
Note: Upgrading from a previous PHP version Previous editions of the manual suggest moving various ini and DLL files into your SYSTEM (i.e. C:\WINDOWS) folder and while this simplifies the installation procedure it makes upgrading difficult. We advise you remove all of these files (like php.ini and PHP related DLLs from the Windows SYSTEM folder) before moving on with a new PHP installation. Be sure to backup these files as you might break the entire system. The old php.ini might be useful in setting up the new PHP as well. And as you'll soon learn, the preferred method for installing PHP is to keep all PHP related files in one directory and have this directory available to your systems PATH.
Note: MDAC requirements If you use Microsoft Windows 98/NT4 download the latest version of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) for your platform. MDAC is available at » https://msdn.microsoft.com/data/. This requirement exists because ODBC is built into the distributed Windows binaries.
The following steps should be completed on all installations before any server specific instructions are performed:
Extract the distribution file into a directory of your choice. If you are installing PHP 4, extract to C:\, as the zip file expands to a foldername like php-4.3.7-Win32. If you are installing PHP 5, extract to C:\php as the zip file doesn't expand as in PHP 4. You may choose a different location but do not have spaces in the path (like C:\Program Files\PHP) as some web servers will crash if you do.
The directory structure extracted from the zip is different for PHP versions 4 and 5 and look like as follows:
Example#1 PHP 4 package structure
c:\php | +--cli | | | |-php.exe -- CLI executable - ONLY for command line scripting | +--dlls -- support DLLs required by some extensions | | | |-expat.dll | | | |-fdftk.dll | | | |-... | +--extensions -- extension DLLs for PHP | | | |-php_bz2.dll | | | |-php_cpdf.dll | | | |-.. | +--mibs -- support files for SNMP | +--openssl -- support files for Openssl | +--pdf-related -- support files for PDF | +--sapi -- SAPI (server module support) DLLs | | | |-php4apache.dll | | | |-php4apache2.dll | | | |-.. | +--PEAR -- initial copy of PEAR | | |-go-pear.bat -- PEAR setup script | |-.. | |-php.exe -- CGI executable | |-.. | |-php.ini-dist -- default php.ini settings | |-php.ini-recommended -- recommended php.ini settings | |-php4ts.dll -- core PHP DLL | |-...
Or:
Example#2 PHP 5 package structure
c:\php | +--dev | | | |-php5ts.lib | +--ext -- extension DLLs for PHP | | | |-php_bz2.dll | | | |-php_cpdf.dll | | | |-.. | +--extras | | | +--mibs -- support files for SNMP | | | +--openssl -- support files for Openssl | | | +--pdf-related -- support files for PDF | | | |-mime.magic | +--pear -- initial copy of PEAR | | |-go-pear.bat -- PEAR setup script | |-fdftk.dll | |-.. | |-php-cgi.exe -- CGI executable | |-php-win.exe -- executes scripts without an opened command prompt | |-php.exe -- CLI executable - ONLY for command line scripting | |-.. | |-php.ini-dist -- default php.ini settings | |-php.ini-recommended -- recommended php.ini settings | |-php5activescript.dll | |-php5apache.dll | |-php5apache2.dll | |-.. | |-php5ts.dll -- core PHP DLL | |-...