How do i run php on my pc?

PHP does not come pre-installed on Windows systems. To work with PHP on Windows, PHP will need to be manually downloaded and installed.

You can download PHP from the PHP download page at http://www.php.net/downloads.php. Download the zip package from the "Windows Binaries" section. This guide will assume the PHP version is version 5.x.

Create a folder on your machine for PHP. For example, c:\php. Extract all of the files from the zip file to the c:\php directory.

Copy the file called c:\php\php.ini-recommended to c:\php\php.ini

If you want to be able to see error messages from your PHP pages, open EditRocket and open the php.ini file. Search for the line display_errors, and make sure the value is set to On.

PHP programs can be created using any text editor such as EditRocket. PHP programs and scripts typically end with the .php extension. EditRocket will automatically recognize files with the .php extension as PHP programs, and will color the syntax accordingly.

To create a PHP program, simply create a new file, such as hello.php. In the file, place the following:

The above program can be executed using the EditRocket Tools -> PHP -> Execute Program option, or you can execute it from a command prompt. To execute the script in the command prompt, use the cd command to cd to the directory where the hello.php file was saved, such as

cd C:\Scripts

Then type the following:

C:\php\php.exe hello.php

Hello World! should then be printed to the screen.

SmugWimp at smugwimp dot com ¶

16 years ago

If you make changes to your PHP.ini file, consider the following.

(I'm running IIS5 on W2K server. I don't know about 2K3)

PHP will not "take" the changes until the webserver is restarted, and that doesn't mean through the MMC.  Usually folks just reboot. But you can also use the following commands, for a much faster "turnaround".  At a command line prompt, type:

iisreset /stop

and that will stop the webserver service.  Then type:

net start w3svc

and that will start the webserver service again.  MUCH faster than a reboot, and you can check your changes faster as a result with the old:


phpinfo();
?>

in your page somewhere.

I wish I could remember where I read this tip; it isn't anything I came up with...

lukasz at szostak dot biz ¶

16 years ago

You can have multiple versions of PHP running on the same Apache server. I have seen many different solutions pointing at achieving this, but most of them required installing additional instances of Apache, redirecting ports/hosts, etc., which was not satisfying for me.
Finally, I have come up with the simplest solution I've seen so far, limited to reconfiguring Apache's httpd.conf.

My goal is to have PHP5 as the default scripting language for .php files in my DocumentRoot (which is in my case d:/htdocs), and PHP4 for specified DocumentRoot subdirectories.

Here it is (Apache's httpd.conf contents):

---------------------------
# replace with your PHP4 directory
ScriptAlias /php4/ "c:/usr/php4/"
# replace with your PHP5 directory
ScriptAlias /php5/ "c:/usr/php5/"

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Action application/x-httpd-php "/php5/php-cgi.exe"

# populate this for every directory with PHP4 code

    Action application/x-httpd-php "/php4/php.exe"
    # directory where your PHP4 php.ini file is located at
    SetEnv PHPRC "c:/usr/php4"


# remember to put this section below the above

    # directory where your PHP5 php.ini file is located at
    SetEnv PHPRC "c:/usr/php5"

---------------------------

This solution is not limited to having only two parallel versions of PHP. You can play with httpd.conf contents to have as many PHP versions configured as you want.
You can also use multiple php.ini configuration files for the same PHP version (but for different DocumentRoot subfolders), which might be useful in some cases.

Remember to put your php.ini files in directories specified in lines "SetEnv PHPRC...", and make sure that there's no php.ini files in other directories (such as c:\windows in Windows).

And finally, as you can see, I run PHP in CGI mode. This has its advantages and limitations. If you have to run PHP as Apache module, then... sorry - you have to use other solution (the best advice as always is: Google it!).

Hope this helps someone.

jp at iticonsulting dot nl ¶

17 years ago

If you get 404 page not found on Windows/IIS5, have a look at C:\SYSTEM32\INETSRV\URLSCAN

There is a .ini file there that prevents some files from being served by IIS, even if they exist, instead IIS will give a 404. The urlscan logfile (same place) should give you some insight into what parameter is preventing a page from loading, if any.

webmaster at nachelfamily dot com ¶

15 years ago

I made the mistake of setting a 'wildcard application map' for PHP on a Windows 2003 / IIS 6.0 / PHP ISAPI installation. 

This resulted in "No input file specified" errors whenever I tried to load the default page in my site's directories.  I don't know why this broke things, but it did.

If anyone has the same problem, this may be the cause.

smileclick at hotmail dot com ¶

14 years ago

Still Can't Run PHP Code?

After installing php-5.2.5-win32-installer.msi on my Windows XP2. with IIS5.1 it still didn't run PHP files.

I eventually found the fix*:

1. Goto Control Panel>System>Advanced>Environmental Variables
2. Add a New System Variable "PHRC" and set its path as "C:\Program Files\PHP"
3. Restart

*source:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/faq.installation.php
#faq.installation.addtopath

robert dot johnson at icap dot com ¶

14 years ago

IIS setup: 403 forbidden error. 

We had installed two separate different PHP versions - PHP 5.1.4 followed by 5.2.5.

We configured 5.2.5 php5isapi.dll to be loaded as the .php file type extension.

Despite this, php version 5.1.4 was being loaded.  We renamed 5.1.4's folder and then PHP was not loading at all.

There were no visible references to 5.1.4 in the IIS configuration, but in the file \webConfig.xml, there was a reference to 5.1.4's isapi under IISFilters.

To fix this problem, we added version 5.2.5's php5isapi.dll to the ISAPI Filter category for the web site, in the IIS control panel.

bufoni at hotmail dot com ¶

13 years ago

Oh Man!

I installed by Microsoft Installer, manually, whatever I always received de same error from IIS7.

HTTP Error 404.3 - Not Found
The page you are requesting cannot be served because of the extension configuration. If the page is a script, add a handler. If the file should be downloaded, add a MIME map.

The IIS7 interface is quite diferent and are not all together like IIS6

The 5.3 version have not any of those files: php5stdll, php5isapi.dll. etc.

The installer puts others files in handlers and I decided to use them as substitutes. Nothing done!

After that, I discovered that installer do not install these files within the sites, but in the root default site configuration of IIS7.

So, I copied the root configuration to my site and them it worked (all others procedures were done e.g. copy php.ini to windows folder)

dpharshman at dslextreme dot com ¶

13 years ago

PHP 5.2.9.2 Install on XP Pro IIS 5.1 - phpinfo( ) results incorrect

Testing Date:  05.15.09

Background:
For several days now I, as a newbie, have been unsure if I had installed PHP correctly, or not.  No matter what I did phpinfo( ) reported "Configuratin File Path" as:  “C:\WINDOWS”.  I was left to wonder what was wrong.

To help resolve the phpinfo() “issue”, I conducted a series of tests using two scripts:

The first is “test-php-ini-loaded.php”; it is stored in c:\inetpub\wwwroot, and has the following code:

        $inipath = php_ini_loaded_file();

    if (

jneill at gamedaytv dot com ¶

15 years ago

Here's how to run dual PHP instances with PHP 5.2 and any previous PHP on Windows 2003:

1. Right-click My Computer, go to Advanced tab, and click on Environment Variables.

Add the two installations and their EXT directories to the Path variable. For example, add:
c:\php;c:\php\ext;c:\TMAS\php;c:\tmas\php\ext;

Then, add the newer PHP version's directory as a variable called PHPRC. For example:
Variable:PHPRC
Value: C:\PHP

Click OK to close the Environment Variables window, and click OK to close System Properties.

2. In registry, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>PHP, add a REG_SZ key called iniFilePath and give it a value
of the directory where the older PHP is installed. For example:
C:\TMAS\PHP

3. In IIS, go to the Web Service Extensions. Add both versions' ISAPI module separately to the extensions
list, and allow both.

4. In IIS, go to each website utilizing the PHP versions. Set an ISAPI filter if needed. On the Home Directory
tab, click Configuration, and add .php, .php3, .phtml, and any other extensions needed (perhaps .html?) to
be filtered through PHP, and specify the ISAPI module version needed for each website.

You can now run two versions of PHP. This is because the order of where to look for the .ini file changed
between previous PHP versions and PHP 5.2, as documented at http://us2.php.net/ini:

---------------------------------------------------
php.ini is searched in these locations (in order):

    * SAPI module specific location (PHPIniDir directive in Apache 2, -c command line option in CGI and CLI, php_ini parameter in NSAPI, PHP_INI_PATH environment variable in THTTPD)
    * The PHPRC environment variable. Before PHP 5.2.0 this was checked after the registry key mentioned below.
    * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP\IniFilePath (Windows Registry location)
    * Current working directory (for CLI)
    * The web server's directory (for SAPI modules), or directory of PHP (otherwise in Windows)
    * Windows directory (C:\windows or C:\winnt) (for Windows), or --with-config-file-path compile time option
----------------------------------------------------

Feroz Zahid ¶

17 years ago

In order to run php scripts with php.exe CGI instead of php4isapi.dll under IIS, following steps can be followed.

i) Add a web service extension for PHP using IIS manager. Choose a web service extension name like 'PHP' and add your php.exe path in the 'file location' while adding the required file e.g. 'C:\php\php.exe' in the Add extension dialog box. Don't forget to 'Allow' the extension file.

ii) Open php.ini file located at %systemroot%. Set the following variables to the shown values.

cgi.force_redirect = 0
cgi.redirect_status_env = ENV_VAR_NAME

iii) In your websites, add Application Mapping for '.php' and set the executable path to your php.exe file path.

You can test whether PHP is running or not and other PHP settings using the following simple PHP script.


phpinfo();
?>

Feroz Zahid
ferozzahid [_at_] usa [_dot_] [_com_]

ratkinson at tbs-ltd dot co dot uk ¶

16 years ago

When installing onto the Windows IIS platform, ensure you add the PHPRC Server Variable to point to your PHP.INI file.

Also, add '.INI' to the FILEEXT Server Variable. Failure to add these could stop the PHP engine being able to find your PHP.INI file, and none of your modifications will be read.

Rob.

How can I run PHP on my computer?

How do I open PHP on Windows?

Does Windows come with PHP?

What is the best tool to run PHP locally on your computer?