note 94420 deleted from install.windows.manual by danbrown

Note Submitter: cogiate at pobox dot com ---- None of the suggestions above worked for me with IIS7, PHP 5.2.11 and Vista Home Premium. I struggled for many hours trying to manually configure but could *never* get the phpinfo to report the correct location for my php.ini. I finally gave up and used the Web Platform installer and voila-- worked without issue (an add-on available from MSFT: http://www.iis.net/extensions/AdministrationPack ) Big things I noticed that the web platform installer did: 1. it put the php path at the beginning of the Windows path statement. No idea if this is a big deal but I wondered about it towards the end of my manual struggles and then pow, that's exactly what the automated installer did. 2. PHPRC variable is not added via the standard windows environment variables but through the FastCGI administration component in Windows IIS (see the IIS link above to get the Admin interface... the Administration add-in for IIS gives you a GUI to config FastCGI). In IIS: click on the top level of the hierarchy (machine name) on the left side of the IIS Admin tool. on the right, get in the features view and double click the FastCGI settings entry. Then double click on the php-cgi.exe entry and then on the Environment Variables entry. This is where the Win Platform installer put the variable. Does it make a diff? dunno but it's one more brick in the wall which is not mentioned in any manual install steps I see posted on the 'net. 3. the freakin' Registry entry that is talked about on so many web sites is actually there when you do a Win Platform install. No one mentioned the complete reg entry (maybe Vista is the complicating factor?) in any winfixitalltohell suggestions I read about on the net. Reg entries left behind by Win Platform Installer: HKEY_LOCAL_Machine -> Software -> PHP (2 entries as follows): a. String, Value Name = InstallDir, Value Data: <your php install location. e.g. c:\php\ or c:\program files\php\> b. String, Value Name = WebServerType, Value Data: iis4FastCGI (again, this is an IIS7 running on Vista, no idea why iis4 is referenced) hope that helps some poor lost manual installer out there. what a friggin' nightmare.