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Get Up and Running with PHP on Windows ​

Good news — you don’t need WAMP, XAMPP, or any heavy installers in 2025.
Just grab the official PHP binaries, unzip, and go!

1. Download the latest PHP zip (Thread-Safe version) ​

Go to: https://windows.php.net/download/

  • Choose VS16 x64 Thread Safe Zip (recommended for Tina4 and Composer)
  • As of November 2025, the latest stable is PHP 8.3.x or 8.4.x

Direct link example (always verify the latest):

https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/php-8.5.0-nts-Win32-vs17-x64.zip

2. Extract to C:\php ​

  1. Unzip the downloaded file
  2. Create folder C:\php (if it doesn’t exist)
  3. Move all contents into C:\php

Your folder should now contain php.exe, php.ini-development, etc.

3. Create php.ini ​

Copy php.ini-development → php.ini inside C:\php

bash
copy C:\php\php.ini-development C:\php\php.ini

4. Add C:\php to your System PATH ​

  1. Press Win + X → System → Advanced system settings
  2. Click Environment Variables
  3. Under System variables, find and edit Path
  4. Click New → add C:\php → OK → OK

Open a new Command Prompt or PowerShell and test:

bash
php -v

You should see the PHP version output.

5. Enable common extensions ​

Edit C:\php\php.ini and uncomment the extensions you need (remove the ;):

ini
extension=curl
extension=fileinfo
extension=gd
extension=mbstring
extension=openssl
extension=pdo_mysql
extension=pdo_sqlite
extension=sqlite3
; uncomment if you use PostgreSQL
;extension=pdo_pgsql

6. Install Composer (one-liner) ​

In PowerShell or CMD (as Administrator is not required):

powershell
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if(hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === trim(file_get_contents('https://composer.github.io/installer.sig'))) { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); }"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
move composer.phar C:\php\composer.bat

Now composer works globally:

bash
composer --version

7. (Optional but recommended) Install Xdebug ​

bash
# Find your PHP version info
php -i | findstr "PHP Version"

# Go to https://xdebug.org/wizard and paste the output
# Then download the DLL it recommends and place it in C:\php\ext\
# Finally add to php.ini:
zend_extension=xdebug

You’re ready! ​

Start a new Tina4 project instantly:

bash
composer create-project tina4stack/tina4-php my-awesome-site
cd my-awesome-site
composer start

Open http://localhost:7145 — welcome to Tina4 on Windows! 🚀