php 5.6.17 has no php.ini

Question

I'm trying to install composer to get laravel working. Composer gave me the following error:

Some settings on your machine make Composer unable to work properly. Make sure that you fix the issues listed below and run this script again:

The openssl extension is missing, which means that secure HTTPS transfers are impossible. If possible you should enable it or recompile php with --with-openssl

According to this post I need to uncomment the openssl extension. composer not install in windows 7

The problem is I don't have a php.ini file in my php directory. There is a php.ini-development and php.ini-production. Do I just rename one of them to php.ini?

This post is in regards to XAMPP, it says that the php.ini file needs to be edited and not the php.ini-development or php.ini.production. Php.ini production vs development

I downloaded the non-thread safe php x86 from here http://windows.php.net/download/

Cheers

Answer 1

just copy paste php-development.ini and rename it to php.ini. php 7.0.3 is already out!

Answer 2

use php.ini-development for your development server. use php.ini-production for your production server. Copy and rename it to php.ini