Installing WAMP on Windows ...

Are you not a Linux fan and Looking for a free way of setting up a PHP environment on your Window? Read this how to installing Apache, MySQL and PHP on a Windows based machine, also known as WAMP.

What is Apache ?

Apache is our web server. It’s free, reliable and well supported for PHP. It is basically serves web pages from the server to the client browser. For every page you see when connecting to the internet, somewhere there is a network server sending it to you. The pages are usually sent in html format, along with images and other media.



What is MySQL?

MySQL is the world's most popular open source database, recognized for its speed and reliability. A Database is a place for you to store data, whether it is user details or article text. MySQL is highly configurable and easy to use. [From mysql.com]

What is PHP?

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. It allows web pages to be dynamically created, that is they can be easily updated and changed quickly. I’m assuming if you want to use PHP you have some idea what it is, and what it can do, if not, there are too many possibilities to be summed up in a paragraph. [From php.net]

So the Combination of these four : Windows, Apache, Mysql and PHP is called WAMP.


Download  WAMP Server 


Download the latest release of Wampserver 2.

It will combine all the setup files Such as Apache, Mysql and PHP. Once you download WAMP, double click the icon and begin the install process.

Steps to Follow

1. Click Next to begin

2. After agreeing to the WAMP license, select the destination location. Leave the default location as "c:'wamp" and click Next.

3. Leave the default Start Menu shortcut as "WampServer" and click Next.

4. Select automatically launch WAMP5 on startup. This will allow to act as a server whenever it is started. Select the check box and click Next.

5. WAMP will summarize your selections. Click Install and WAMP will begin the install process.

6. WAMP will prompt you to enter the SMTP server to be used by PHP to send emails. Leave the default value as "localhost" and also prompt you to enter the default email address to be used by PHP to send emails. Put your email address in this field and click Next.

7. If you have Firefox installed, WAMP will ask you if you would like to use Firefox as the default browser with WAMP. This is a personal preference, so feel free to choose "Yes" or "No." I will choose "Yes" and then click Next.

8. You will likely be prompted by Windows whether the Windows Firewall should allow or block the features of WAMP. You want to allow all of the features of WAMP, so click Unblock.

9. Congratulations, the installation process is complete, click Finish and Launch WAMP5 now.

10. Open a browser and enter "localhost" as the URL, and you will see a summary of the installation process [Restart the system before launching the wamp]


Now Test your WAMP

open notepad and save a file called "test.php" (putting the quotes around the name insures that notepad saves it as test.php, and not test.php.txt. Notepad sometimes tries to be too helpful!).

In this file type the following:


<?php
echo 'PHP Working';
echo phpinfo();
?>


Save this file in your doc root (C:\wamp\www)

Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost/test.php you should see the line 'PHP is working' and a whole load of info about the current PHP configuration.

If the above scripts all work as planned, then your WAMP environment is set up correctly! Tune in to the next PHP Tutorial for some actual coding!