I had to get my hands dirty today and get a look at some code we’re developing. Having not developed personally in quite some time, I had no reason to have IIS installed, nevermind PHP!

So I set off on the task of installing PHP 5.2 on my Windows Vista machine. And here’s how I did it.

1. Install IIS7
   Control Panel > Programs and features > Turn Windows features on or off
   From here I selected Internet Information Service. I dug a little deeper into Worldwide Web Services and turned on the ISAPI extensions.
2. Download & Install PHP
   Download PHP http://www.php.net/downloads.php – for simple set up, get the zip package.
   Unzip your files to your preferred location, mine is C:\PHP
   Copy the php.ini-dist file into your windows folder. (C:\windows\php.ini)
3. Open IIS Manager
   From your start menu, type iis and hit return to open IIS Manager.
   Select “default web site” and double click, “Handler Mappings”.
   On the right hand side – select “Add Script Map”In the dialogue that opens enter the following:
   Request Path: *.php
   Executable: C:\PHP\php5isapi.dll (*NOTE*: if this is where you’ve stored the unzipped files)
   Name: PHPClick OK. Then you will be asked “Would you like to enable the ISAPI extension”, choose Yes.
4. That’s It!
   You might want to check it with a phpinfo file.
   e.g. Create a text file and type <? phpinfo(); ?>. Save this file as phpinfo.php, copy it into your C:\inetpub\wwwroot. Go to your browser and open http://localhost/phpinfo.php

Enjoy!

Tags: Internet Information Service, PHP, Windows Vista, World Wide Web