Prerequisites

• Windows 10 operating system
• Administrator access to your computer
• Stable internet connection
• Web server software (e.g., Apache or IIS) installed (optional)

Installation

1. Visit the official PHP website: https://windows.php.net/download/
2. Scroll down to the PHP 7.3 section and download the appropriate version (x86 or x64) for your system
3. Extract the downloaded ZIP file to a location on your computer (e.g., C:\php7.3)
4. Copy the php.ini-development file and rename it to php.ini
5. Open php.ini in a text editor and make the following changes:
   • Uncomment the line containing extension_dir by removing the semicolon (;) at the beginning
   • Uncomment any extensions you want to enable (e.g., mysqli, curl, gd)
6. Add the PHP installation directory to your system's PATH environment variable
7. Restart your computer to apply the changes

Verification

1. Open Command Prompt
2. Type php -v and press Enter
3. You should see output similar to:

   PHP 7.3.33 (cli) (built: Nov 23 2021 15:43:28) ( NTS MSVC15 (Visual C++ 2017) x64 )
   Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
   Zend Engine v3.3.33, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
           

4. To verify PHP is working with your web server, create a file named info.php in your web server's document root with the following content:

   <?php
   phpinfo();
   ?>
           

5. Access the file through your web browser (e.g., http://localhost/info.php)
6. If PHP is correctly installed and configured, you should see the PHP information page