Xampp it

When creating this website, I wanted to be able to have a local copy of the setup for any hacks, experiments etc that I might be inclined to do. In order to host a website on your PC you need to be running a web server.

Until today I had typically relied on Microsoft's IIS server, however in the interests of progressing my knowledge and experience I wanted to set up and run this site on an Apache setup so I could run PHP and MySQL. Now I have tried this setup in the past but found it a bit of a pain in the arse to install and so ditched it with a view to come back later. This time around I had heard of a very neat little tool by Apache Friends called Xampp. It couldn't have been any easier, Xampp is a one click install control panel that installs Apache and MySQL, not to mention a host of other useful tools. You can then switch on and off the services as needed.

I initially couldn't start the Apache service but was well aware of the fact I was still running IIS. A quick dip into windows services (start, control panel, administrative tools, services) and I stopped the IIS admin service which allowed xampp to start Apache. You cannot run Apache and IIS at the same time as they both manage web traffic on port 80.

So with everything I needed installed I was ready to setup the blog!