Skip the blah-blah and go directly to Step #1 of the installation process!

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Let's face it.  There are so many variables surrounding a PHP installation.  This is because PHP is designed to work in various OS and web server platforms.  The generic installation instructions tend to be general so we trip here and there in our attempts to install PHP due of seemingly minor differences in the environments in which we are installing PHP   It is absolutely necessary to read the PHP manual and study the php.ini before attempting to install PHP in any environment.

We have gone through the process and in one particular instance, successfully installed PHP 4.4.1 pre-compiled binary as ISAPI in Windows 2000 Professional running PWS (a watered-down IIS5).  The following pages here have graphic (screen shots) records of each step taken that led to the successful installation.  

The screen shots were originally taken to make our own lives easier and allow us to back track and trace our steps should we encounter problems along the way. The screen shots allowed us to make intelligent guesses and changes instead of aimlessly going around in circles with uncontrolled variables in the installation processes.  As it turned out, we got PHP working on the first attempt.

One of our own standard practices when working on new ground is to record each and every step of a process, whether it be programming, hardware troubleshooting, or software installation.  We use a lot the [Alt] + [Print Screen] key combinations, digital video and still cameras, voice recorders or the good, old method of handwritten notes for taking records.   The practice has proven time and again that it actually saves time to record each step of a whole process (although it is tempting to conclude that recording the steps is too time consuming.)

We would like to share with you the steps to our successful PHP ISAPI installation in a W2K Pro machine with IIS5 (PWS).  The actual environment is:

OS: Windows 2000 Professional English (Build 5.00.2195)
         with SP4 and latest patches as of Oct. 30, 2005.
File System of C: Drive:  FAT32
WebServer:  W2KPro bundled IIS5 (Personal Web Server)
PHP:  Version 4.4.1 downloaded as a zip file  (php-4.4.1-win32.zip) for manual (ISAPI, not CGI) installation using php.ini-recommended as php.ini without any alterations.

If you have the same environment, we would dare guess that following each step to the "T" should end up to a successful installation the first time around.  This is, of course, without consideration to other variables such as CPU, motherboard, chip sets, memory, etc..

Would the installation steps work on other environments (combinations of variables)?  Frankly, we cannot possibly know for sure, but chances are it won't and some changes need to be done.   If you try them out in a different environment or set of variables -- that is, with other versions of Windows, web servers (IIS or others)..., and PHP's --  do share with us how things went.

So let's view Step #1 for the installation of PHP 4.4.1 pre-compiled binary (ISAPI) in W2KPro with IIS5 (i.e., PWS)...