Installing as an Apache handler

To load the PHP module for Apache 2.x, the following lines in the Apache httpd.conf configuration file must be inserted:

# before PHP 8.0.0 the name of the module was php7_module
LoadModule php_module "c:/php/php8apache2_4.dll"
<FilesMatch \.php$>
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>
# configure the path to php.ini
PHPIniDir "C:/php"

Note: The actual path to PHP must be substituted instead of C:/php/ in the above examples. Make sure that the file referenced in the LoadModule directive is at the specified location. Use php7apache2_4.dll for PHP 7, or php8apache2_4.dll for PHP 8.

Running PHP as CGI

It is strongly recommended to consult the » Apache CGI documentation for a more complete understanding of running CGI on Apache.

To run PHP as CGI, the php-cgi files will need to be placed in a directory designated as a CGI directory using the ScriptAlias directive.

A #! line will need to be placed in the PHP files, which point to the location of the PHP binary:

#!C:/php/php.exe
<?php
  phpinfo();
?>

Running PHP under FastCGI

Running PHP under FastCGI has a number of advantages over running it as a CGI. Setting it up this way is fairly straightforward:

Obtain mod_fcgid from » https://www.apachelounge.com. Win32 binaries are available for download from that site. Install the module according to the instructions that will come with it.

Configure your web server as shown below, taking care to adjust any paths to reflect how you have installed things on your particular system:

LoadModule fcgid_module modules/mod_fcgid.so
# Where is your php.ini file?
FcgidInitialEnv PHPRC        "c:/php"
<FilesMatch \.php$>
    SetHandler fcgid-script
</FilesMatch>
FcgidWrapper "c:/php/php-cgi.exe" .php