What's a Robust but Simple Apache / PHP / MySQL Installer for Windows Vista

Question

I tried easyphp but i think it's not enough, I want an Apache / PHP / MySQL installer which has the latest PHP and MySQL version, and with curl and htaccess support.

Opensource solutions are preferred, should be windows vista compatible.

Answer 1

I have never heard of a PHP / mySQL emulator . What purpose would such a tool serve?

If you are looking for a ready-made installer package for Windows, containing everything necessary to install and run PHP, XAMPP is probably one of the best ones around.

Answer 2

WAMP Server is excellent, easy to install and easy to configure:

http://www.wampserver.com/en/index.php

Answer 3

If you want the last version of each piece of software, and to really do it the way you want, the best solution is to download an install each component separatly :

• Apache : http://httpd.apache.org/
• MySQL : http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/
• And PHP : http://www.php.net/downloads.php

Of course, you'll have a bit more work to plug all those together than if using WAMP or anything like that -- but it also mean you'll know more about how they work and can be configured, which is always nice to know ;-)

Answer 4

Never heard of PHP or mySql emulators before. To run a php script you will need a webserver and the PHP engine to parse and execute the script. This cannot be emulated by another engine besides PHP.

Answer 5

I would suggest using Acquia Dev Desktop.

It installs Apache, MySQL & PHP with one click. Most importantly, unlike many other WAMP stacks, it works well under Windows Vista (32- or 64-bit). And as an extra, it installs Acquia Drupal for you as well, so if you ever want to get into Drupal development, you have everything you need to do so.

Get it at http://network.acquia.com/documentation/acquia-drupal-stack

Answer 6

XAMPP Lite USB

"XAMPP Lite" is an additional extra small XAMPP edition. Configured with relative paths you can use it on usb devices.

Answer 7

I'm a BitNami developer and I personally suggest to use BitNami WAMPStack . It is free, it also includes phpMyAdmin for managing the MySQL databases and GUI management tool for the servers. Per your requirements, it is open source, compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7, includes curl and htaccess support and we keep it fairly up to date.