Being a PHP guy you need PHP to run locally on your computer for testing. If your not running Linux and are used to IIS, if you have just upgraded to Vista and tried installing PHP from the PHP installer you found out it just didn’t work so well. After tinkering and searching I have found a few tips on how to get it going, and I will lay it out step by step for you.

1. Intall IIS7 under the programs menu. When choosing components for intalling make sure and choose the PHP ISAPI component. 

2. Download the .zip package of PHP 5.2.1 from here.

3. Unzip the files into c:\php. Or you can unzip them into whatever folder you like to create.

4. Copy the c:\php\php.ini-dist file to c:\windows\php.ini.  Make sure and change the extention.

5. Click Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

6. Under IIS go to Handler Mappings.

7. Click under actions click Add Script Map…

8. You should get a window like the following:

IIS7

9. Fill in the fields: (Request Path: *.php) (Executable: c:\php\php5isapi.dll) (Name: PHP)

10. Hit OK.

Thats it! If you are used to just using the auto installer with Windows XP, this seems a little more extensive but after you get used to the IIS7 interface it will become second nature.