PHP Windows installer gets major overhaul

For years, one of the big complaints from newcomers to PHP has been the lack of a decent way of automating the installation of PHP on Windows. The Windows installer on the official PHP site was totally inadequate to meet the needs of non-experts. It installed a severely restricted CGI version of PHP that included no extensions and required IIS. The lack of extensions meant that support for MySQL was no longer automatically built into PHP 5, and the requirement for IIS excluded anyone using XP Home. All that has changed with the release of PHP 5.2.0. The Windows installer now offers the full range of extensions and automates most of the configuration on a wide range of web servers.

I suppose you could argue that, if you plan to use a programming language like PHP, you should be capable of digging around in a few configuration files and setting everything up manually. That’s true, but it’s been a case of chicken and egg for many people. If you’re completely new to programming, it’s very off-putting to have to struggle for days trying to get everything installed and working correctly. The configuration instructions in the PHP documentation do contain all the necessary information, but they’re very intimidating for a beginner. In fact, it was because I found so many readers stumbling at the first hurdle that I devoted so much space to detailed step-by-step instructions in all my PHP-related books. Yes, I could have told people to use XAMMP or one of the other all-in-one packages, but I have always preferred to stick with the official version. Too many people were left in the lurch when a very popular package stopped development overnight several years ago.

First impressions of the new Windows installer are very favourable. The interface is very familiar to Windows users and the steps are easy to follow. However, in order to make the necessary choices, you need to have a basic idea of the various features offered by PHP. You also need to install a web server first. Otherwise, the installer can’t do the necessary configuration, thereby removing one of its main advantages in the first place. I tested the installer by completely removing all traces of PHP from my computer, and it performed a successful install on top of Apache 2.2.3 with the minimum of fuss. You can see full instructions, complete with screenshots in the Tutorials section of my site.

I would be interested to hear the experiences of others, particular anyone trying it out with IIS.

11 comments November 3rd, 2006