PHP & MySQL® Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies®

5.1. Obtaining XAMPP

You can download XAMPP for Windows from www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. As of this writing, the current version of XAMPP is 1.6.2. This version installs the following:

• MySQL 5.0.41

• PHP 5.2.2

• PHP 4.4.7

• Apache 2.2.4

• phpMyAdmin 2.10.1

Notice that XAMPP installs two versions of PHP — PHP 4 and PHP 5. You can only run one version at a time, not both. By default, XAMPP starts with PHP 5. After installation, you can switch back and forth between PHP 5 and PHP 4. A link is provided to switch PHP versions in the main XAMPP Web page (see the section, "Opening the XAMPP Web page," later in this chapter).

Scroll down the Web page until you come to the Download section. Under the listing for XAMPP Windows [Basic Package], click the Installer link to download the Installer version.

The downloaded file is named xampp-win32-, followed by the version number, followed by -installer.exe, such as xampp-win32-1.6.2-installer.exe. Save the downloaded file on your hard drive in an easy-to-find place, such as the desktop.