Recently I took up the idiotic task of installing from scratch an Apache web server on a Windows machine with PHP, MySQL and PHPmyAdmin. What I usually do is grab a package, like XAMPP or WAMP… but this machine was running Windows 7 and I had experienced issues with XAMPP on Windows Vista, so I thought, "oh I'll just try it myself…"

Seriously why do we have to just bicker all the time?

Long story short, this was not fun. But, it definitely gave me a better idea of how PHP, MySQL and Apache work together.

Resources

There is a lot out there on the web that tries to help you with getting your own server up. Problem is not all of it is tailored to Windows machines (where the setup is totally different from Mac or Linux) and other times you just have contradictory instructions. Here are some resources I found particularly helpful (tailored for Windows 7):

• Installing MySQL on Windows 7
• Installing PHP on Windows 7
• Installing Apache on Windows 7

If you're going down this path…

… there are some things to keep in mind. These were some of my hang-ups and tips learned along the way.

Not all versions are created equal

If the page you're reading is telling you how to install PHP 5.3 and you download 5.2, the instructions won't match up. Different versions actually differ, even in the installation process! There are many variables to take into account. If you are following instructions, make sure the versions of the files you downloaded match up.

When all else fails, restart

Every time you edit a configuration file or make changes to things, you will probably need to restart your Apache server. If your computer boots up fast, I would just restart the computer because then for SURE you know everything is getting reset. Sometimes I thought I was restarting my Apache server but I really wasn't.

Uncommenting to enable PHP extensions

To make PHP work with MySQL (or any other thing) you will need to configure your php.ini file to use extensions. You do this by removing the initial semi-colon, which uncomments it and allows PHP to recognize it.

Why do I always have to use the "htdocs" folder?

Actually you don't have to! If you want to start putting your websites in a diferrent folder than the htdocs folder wherever you install Apache, you can change some line of your httpd Apache file to change where it looks for the files.

Let's add Drupal into the mix…

So if you're going to put Drupal up there, be wary that you will need to uncomment some extra PHP extensions to make things work the way you'd like. Also, for clean URLs to work, there is another step you need to take, which is essentially making your .htaccess file be seen by Apache. As per usual, make sure you have got your php.ini configured to Drupal's liking.