xampp Options

[Maccabee]

Theres probably other threads like this but how do I get xampp to work? And I'm not trying to setup a web server. Just a local host to test out my php websites cause I dont want to have to do it all on the server.

I just want to be able to take the whole site off the server ans run it on my computr until im ready to go live. Links or tutorials would be great.

[mipadi]

You might also want to try something other than Apache + MySQL, both of which are really beastly. lighttpd is a great webserver that has a smaller footprint, is easy to set up (even on Windows, which I suppose you are using), and has great support for PHP builtin. If you're just experimenting, you could also use SQLite instead of MySQL, which is a server-less implementation of SQL.

This is actually a big reason why I like writing websites in Rails or Django: both come with simple webservers that you can fire up when needed, and shut down easily enough. But I digress.

[Uronacid]

You might also want to try something other than Apache + MySQL, both of which are really beastly. lighttpd is a great webserver that has a smaller footprint, is easy to set up (even on Windows, which I suppose you are using), and has great support for PHP builtin. If you're just experimenting, you could also use SQLite instead of MySQL, which is a server-less implementation of SQL.

This is actually a big reason why I like writing websites in Rails or Django: both come with simple webservers that you can fire up when needed, and shut down easily enough. But I digress.

Lighttpd is good as well. I only suggested Apache because it's very very easy to setup on windows. It's a good place to start learning about web servers. When you get into it, you'll want to move to a faster/more-efficient web server like lighttpd or nginx.

You just want something to test scripts you write. So, In this case I don't see a reason for you to worry about the type of web server you use as you're not looking to host. The only one who is going to connect to your web server is you. Apache and PHP5 will be the easiest thing for you to understand and setup on the windows platform. If you have a thirst to learn more about web servers and what makes them efficient then look into it after you have a basic understanding of how they work. Get your hands dirty.