How to install XAMPP on Windows for PHP Development

Step 1 - Download XAMPP on Windows

You can search 'download xampp on windows' in Google and download it to your computer. Download the latest version. You can download from https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html also.

Step 2 - Install XAMPP on Windows

Once the download is complete, go to the folder where you have saved the downloaded file in your computer. Usually, it is in the Downloads folder, unless you have saved it in another folder. There will be a .exe file for XAMPP. Double-click on the exe file. Click on the Next button and select the folder you want to install other than the default folder C:\xampp. Keep on clicking on the Next Button until it starts installing. Let the installation complete, note that, in the end, it gives a successfully installed message. After installation is done, the XAMPP control panel should be opened.

If it is not already started click on the start button as in the above screenshot to start the Apache Web Server and MySQL database server. These two services should run to make your computer work as a localhost server and enable you to run PHP programs using MySQL database.

After the services are started, you can see the Apache and MySQL services showing green in the XAMPP control panel. If you can do all the above steps without error, your XAMPP installation is complete. Now we need to perform certain verifications to see if your localhost server and MySQL database are working fine.

Step 3 - Verify if XAMPP is installed correctly

Check Windows Folder

In Windows Explorer, go to the folder where you have installed XAMPP. You will see there is a 'xampp' folder created and within this folder, several other folders should exist, among them, there will be 'htdocs' folder which is the home directory of the XAMPP server. For me, I installed it in D:\xampp. So, I can see the folder D:\xampp\htdocs.

Check XAMPP Control Panel

The XAMPP control panel is the tool to start and stop the XAMPP server. To run a PHP program, an Apache Web server and MySQL database server should be running. You can start and stop these services using the XAMPP control panel. Please make sure these two services are running, they should be in light green background color. You will see an icon as in the Windows taskbar. If it is not there, type 'xampp control panel' in Windows search. Start XAMPP control and it should show a screen as below:

Now, to be sure they are working properly, click on the Stop buttons one after the other for Apache and MySQL. Services should stop. Now click on the Start buttons and they should start successfully.

If the above test works fine then open the browser and type in the URL bar as 'localhost', if you see the below screen then the XAMPP server is working fine.

Verify MySQL database

You must check if the database is working correctly. Again, in the welcome page above, click on phpMyAdmin from the top menu as shown below:

After clicking on phpMyAdmin, you should see the phpMyAdmin screen. This is the admin panel, you can perform various MySQL database activities and run SQL statements using this admin panel.

In the above screen, the left panel shows a list of databases, by default the 'test' database is created. On the right-hand side check the PHP version, it is 8.0.10, in our case.

With this, your XAMPP installation and verification are complete. I hope you can successfully download and install XAMPP in your system. Now, your system is ready for the development of PHP programs using the localhost server.