Informed Webmaster

If you are just starting out in web programming you might find it handy to install an Apache web server on your Windows machine to work on your project without using a live server installation. I have done this when working on Wordpress themes.

Starting web development is easy: you create a file called something.html, edit it in Notepad, and load it in a browser. Simple sites can be built using this process, but to really explore the possibilities, you need a web server.

How to Install Apache Web Server on Windows

Maybe those who have done this can chime in with which method they used to install Apache on a Widows machine and why.

Over the years I tried and used both Xampp and Wamp. I have never installed any on Windows the old way though I have installed a full LAMP on Linux many times.

Both Xampp and Wamp worked fine, I prefer Xampp because you are not forced to run it as a service (service= means it starts when you boot). You can control when it is running by the use of an icon which loads a BAT file.

Either of these is fine for testing or development but neither are suitable for a production server as they are set up to make things easy and not as secure as possible.

Certainly not the expert but would be happy to try and answer any questions you might have.