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 http://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.

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:

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:

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
   | 
   |-...

Notice the differences and similarities. Both PHP 4 and PHP 5 have a CGI executable, a CLI executable, and server modules, but they are located in different folders and/or have different names. While PHP 4 packages have the server modules in the sapi folder, PHP 5 distributions have no such directory and instead they're in the PHP folder root. The supporting DLLs for the PHP 5 extensions are also not in a seperate directory.

Here is a list of server modules shipped with PHP 4 and PHP 5:

• sapi/php4activescript.dll (php5activescript.dll) - ActiveScript engine, allowing you to embed PHP in your Windows applications.

• sapi/php4apache.dll (php5apache.dll) - Apache 1.3.x module.

• sapi/php4apache2.dll (php5apache2.dll) - Apache 2.0.x module.

• sapi/php5apache2_2.dll - Apache 2.2.x module.

• sapi/php4isapi.dll (php5isapi.dll) - ISAPI Module for ISAPI compliant web servers like IIS 4.0/PWS 4.0 or newer.

• sapi/php4nsapi.dll (php5nsapi.dll) - Sun/iPlanet/Netscape server module.

• sapi/php4pi3web.dll (no equivalent in PHP 5) - Pi3Web server module.

Server modules provide significantly better performance and additional functionality compared to the CGI binary. The CLI version is designed to let you use PHP for command line scripting. More information about CLI is available in the chapter about using PHP from the command line.

The CGI and CLI binaries, and the web server modules all require the php4ts.dll (php5ts.dll) file to be available to them. You have to make sure that this file can be found by your PHP installation. The search order for this DLL is as follows:

• The same directory from where php.exe is called, or in case you use a SAPI module, the web server's directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin).

• Any directory in your Windows PATH environment variable.

To make php4ts.dll / php5ts.dll available you have three options: copy the file to the Windows system directory, copy the file to the web server's directory, or add your PHP directory, C:\php to the PATH. For better maintenance, we advise you to follow the last option, add C:\php to the PATH, because it will be simpler to upgrade PHP in the future. Read more about how to add your PHP directory to PATH in the corresponding FAQ entry (and then don't forget to restart the computer - logoff isn't enough).

The next step is to set up a valid configuration file for PHP, php.ini. There are two ini files distributed in the zip file, php.ini-dist and php.ini-recommended. We advise you to use php.ini-recommended, because we optimized the default settings in this file for performance, and security. Read this well documented file carefully because it has changes from php.ini-dist that will drastically affect your setup. Some examples are display_errors being off and magic_quotes_gpc being off. In addition to reading these, study the ini settings and set every element manually yourself. If you would like to achieve the best security, then this is the way for you, although PHP works fine with these default ini files. Copy your chosen ini-file to a directory that PHP is able to find and rename it to php.ini. PHP searches for php.ini in the locations described in the Section called The configuration file in Chapter 9 section.

If you are running Apache 2, the simpler option is to use the PHPIniDir directive (read the installation on Apache 2 page), otherwise your best option is to set the PHPRC environment variable. This process is explained in the following FAQ entry.

The following steps are optional:

• Edit your new php.ini file. If you plan to use OmniHTTPd, do not follow the next step. Set the doc_root to point to your web servers document_root. For example:

  doc_root = c:\inetpub\wwwroot // for IIS/PWS doc_root = c:\apache\htdocs // for Apache

• Choose the extensions you would like to load when PHP starts. See the section about Windows extensions, about how to set up one, and what is already built in. Note that on a new installation it is advisable to first get PHP working and tested without any extensions before enabling them in php.ini.

• On PWS and IIS, you can set the browscap configuration setting to point to: c:\windows\system\inetsrv\browscap.ini on Windows 9x/Me, c:\winnt\system32\inetsrv\browscap.ini on NT/2000, and c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\browscap.ini on XP. For an up-to-date browscap.ini, read the following FAQ.

PHP is now setup on your system. The next step is to choose a web server, and enable it to run PHP. Choose a web server from the table of contents.