Installing XAMPP

1. Download XAMPP from Here.
2. Run the installer, and choose the location where XAMPP will be installed.
   (For Vista users with UAC enabled, it is recommended that you install XAMPP in “C:\xampp\” directory instead of “C:\Program Files\xampp\” because the UAC will prevent the write privilages of XAMPP if it is installed in Program Files.)
   

   Selecting Install Location

3. In the next step, you’ll be asked for the services to be installed. Select to install Apache & MySQL as services. If you want to use FTP, then select the option for FTP too…
   

   Selecting Servces to Install

4. Click the “Install” button and wait for the installation to be done. After the installation ends, XAMPP would automatically start the Apache server and PHPmyAdmin, if you are installing it using the Installer.
5. Run the “XAMPP Control Panel” and start the services Apache HTTP Server & PHP.
   

   XAMPP Control Panel

The address of the Local Web Server is “localhost” or “127.0.0.1“. Go to the address of the Local Web Server using your favorite web browser. Then select language “English”, you will get a welcome message informing that XAMPP is installed properly.

You can see the menu on the left. Using that sidebar you can see the Status, Demos, and access other tools. Click on “Status”, there you can see what services are running on XAMPP.

Securing your Local Web Server

XAMPP is not much secure and the developers ddin’t feel the need to make it secure because XAMPP was developed to be used by the Web Developers and provide the Web Developers with the maximum features. And making XAMPP secure would restrict certain features to the Web Developers. The Local Server which you have installed using XAMPP is accessible to everyone who’s there in your LAN & to the one knows your IP Address.

If you plan to use XAMPP for serving dynamic pages over the Web, you have to make sure that it is totally secured. Here are the ways to make your XAMPP secure:

1. Go to “127.0.0.1″ or “localhost” through your favorite browser (mine is Firefox).
2. Click on “Security” on the left sidebar. This should pop-up a “Security” window.
   

   Selecting "Security" from the Sidebar

3. Using the “Security” menu, you can set passwords for MySQL superuser “root” and also for PHPmyAdmin.
4. After you have done creating passwords, visit back the “Security” page, you can see your security status over there.
   

   Checking Security Status

5. Your XAMPP is now secured.

Using XAMPP for Serving Dynamic Pages

Now, your XAMPP server is ready-to-use. What you have to do is, enable the required services, get add-ons if needed and put the files that you need to work with in the “htdocs” folder in the XAMPP installation directory.

Some Basic Info

Here’s some basic info that you should know about XAMPP:

• Address of your Local WebServer: http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1
• Address to access your PHPmyAdmin: http://localhost/phpmyadmin/
• Directory for Placing your Scripts: C:\xampp\htdocs
  
• Database Server: localhost
• Database SuperUser: root
• PHP Configuration File:  C:\xampp\php\php.ini