Go to http://www.php.net/downloads.php and download the latest stable release. This tutorial assumes you will want to install the latest version 5 release which at the time of writing is 5.04.
Click on ' PHP 5.0.4 zip package' which takes you to a download mirror site in which to download the file named ' php-5.0.4-Win32.zip ' - 7488 kb, save it to your hard drive in a suitable temporary location. (In case of re-installs being necessary I have a permanent location called 'Master Programs' where I download to and extract from there).
Note: We are installing the full ZIP version manually, not the cut down Binary Installer Package. Although the installer package is the easier way out, in terms of Apache it does not nothing but copy the files over to a new location, and most of the libraries and other add-ins are missing. No Apache configuration is done by the binary installer so is useless to us.
Step 2 - Install PHP
Following on from our previous related tutorial on Apache, extract all files and sub-folders to 'C:\Apache2\php5' - if you extract elsewhere, please remember to substitute this file path in any future references.
Note: PHP5 Installation is slightly different to PHP4 installations, PHP 4 installation techniques can be found here. The php5 install.txt has this to say :-
Upgrading from a previous PHP version: Previous editions of the manual suggest moving various ini and DLL files into your SYSTEM (i.e. C:\WINDOWS) folder and while this simplifies the installation procedure it makes upgrading difficult. We advise you remove all of these files (like php.ini and PHP related DLLs from the Windows SYSTEM folder) before moving on with a new PHP installation. Be sure to backup these files as you might break the entire system. The old php.ini might be useful in setting up the new PHP as well. And as you'll soon learn, the preferred method for installing PHP is to keep all PHP related files in one directory and have this directory available to your systems PATH.
Locate C:\Apache2\php5\phi-ini.dist and make a copy of this file, rename it to php.ini and make sure it is saved in the same folder.
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