Install and configure PHP on IIS 8 in Windows 8

This article describes how to install and configure IIS 8.0 and PHP on Windows 8.

Original product version:   Internet Information Services 8.0, Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro
Original KB number:   2819022

Problem description

If we want to run web application based on PHP platform, we must ensure our computer has IIS 8.0 as web server and PHP engine. By default, Windows 8 does not have one of them. But user can easily to activate IIS 8.0 feature and install PHP engine in Windows 8.

Solutions

We can activate IIS 8.0 in Windows 8 by using Turn Windows features on or off in Control Panel. And there are two ways to install and configure PHP in Windows 8. First, we can install and configure PHP manually. Second, we can use Web Platform Installer that can install and configure PHP automatically.

How to do

There are three works that we will do in this section:

  1. IIS 8.0 installation.
  2. Web Platform Installer installation.
  3. PHP installation and configuration with Web Platform Installer.

IIS 8.0 Installation

These are steps to activate IIS 8 in Windows 8:

  1. Run Turn Windows features on or off with choose Settings from charms bar, then choose Control Panel.

  2. In Control Panel window, choose Programs.

  3. In Programs and Features, choose Turn Windows features on or off.

    Screenshot of Turn Windows features on or off option in the Control Panel page.

  4. Check Internet Information Service and click OK button.

    Screenshot of Internet information services in the Windows Features dialog.

After the installation process is complete, we can check whether IIS 8.0 is installed correctly by running Internet Explorer. In the address bar, type <https://localhost>. If successful, we see web page like this picture below.

Screenshot of the IIS page in Internet Explorer.

Web Platform Installer Installation

Web Platform Installer is a simple, free tool that automates the installation of Microsoft's entire Web Platform including PHP. We can download it form Web Platform Installer. The name of installer is wpilauncher.exe.

Run wpilauncher.exe and we will see installation status like this picture below.

Screenshot of the Web Platform Installer installation status.

After installation is completed, we can see Web Platform Installer 4.0 window like this picture below.

Screenshot of the Web Platform Installer window.

PHP Installation and Configuration

These are step to install and configure PHP with Web Platform Installer:

  1. In Web Platform Installer window, choose Products tab and search PHP version that we will install.

  2. Click Add button as we can see in picture below.

    Screenshot of the add button of PHP 5.4.9 in Web Platform Installer window.

  3. After click Add button, we can see there are two items that will be installed. By click Items to be installed link, we can see list of those items.

    Screenshot of the Items to be installed option in Web Platform Installer window.

  4. Click Install button.

    Screenshot of the Prerequisites page of Web Platform Installer after clicking Install button.

  5. Click I Accept button and it will be downloaded item and install them.

    Screenshot of the Install page of Web Platform Installer after clicking I Accept button.

  6. After the installation process is complete, click Finish button.

Testing

To check whether the installation and configuration are successful, we can test it by following steps:

  1. Create info.php file and type this code below as content.

    Screenshot of the code content of info.php file.

  2. Copy info.php file to IIS's root folder in C:\inetpub\wwwroot.

  3. Run Internet Explorer, and type https://localhost/infor.php in address bar.

  4. We will see web page like picture below if all installation and configuration are successful.

    Screenshot of the PHP version 5.4.9 details page.

More information

Configuring Step 1: Install IIS and PHP

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