Danny Gunawan

This article is the preceding article of

• How to Install Apache 2.2 in Windows
• How to Install MySQL 5.1 in Apache 2.2 for Windows
• How to Install PHP 5 in Apache 2.2 for Windows
• How to Install PHPMyAdmin in Apache 2.2 for Windows

In this article you will learn about the preparation process to install Apache, PHP and MySQL to your Windows local computer.

Installing Apache, PHP and MySQL will make you have a Linux-like web server in your Windows environment. After this setup you can test and develop your PHP scripts and web applications or you can try and use many common open sources PHP and MySQL based Content Management Systems (CMS) in your computer.

Who Need This

This article used for anyone who needs to install Apache 2.2.x, PHP 5.x and MySQL 5.1.x on local computer with Windows operating system. Although this article created based on personal computer running Windows 2000 operating system but it should working similar with Windows NT 4 and Windows XP.

This article is also for you who do not want to rely on third party’s installation packages which you can find many in the Internet like XAMPP, EasyPHP or PHPTriad.

Why Apache 2.2.x and PHP 5.x

Altough Apache 1.x, Apache 2.0.x, PHP 4.x and MySQL 4.1.x still available but the further development of them is already stopped. With this kind of situation we have to make sure our web application is compatible to Apache 2.2.x, PHP 5.x and MySQL 5.1.x series.

Please note that some of CMS applications are not compatible yet with the newer version used in this article.

The good news is that CPanel as the famous hosting control panel used by well known hosting providers finally supports Apache 2.2.x, PHP 5.x and MySQL 5.1.x.

Download Files

Before we do any actual installation steps, we do need download all the necessary files below.

Apache
You need to download the msi version of Apache 2.2.x for Windows at
http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi

MySQL
Download MySQL 5.1.x for Windows using Windows Essentials (x86) package at
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.1.html#win32

MySQL GUI Tools
Download MySQL GUI Tools using Windows (x86) package at
http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/../pick

MySQL Native Driver
Download MySQL Native Driver for PHP at
http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/../pick

PHP
You need to download the latest PHP version 5.x using Windows Binaries package at
http://www.php.net/downloads.php#v5

PHPMyAdmin
Download the zip package of PHPMyAdmin at
http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/downloads.php

Note: You should have Microsoft Windows Installer installed in your computer to running the msi files. This freeware should already installed by default if you running Windows XP or Windows Vista. For Windows 2000 and NT version you can click here to install and download.

Ready

After files downloaded then we are ready to do the actual Apache, MySQL, and PHP installation steps. Let us move on to How to Install Apache 2.2 in Windows article.