How can i study or try PHP programming at home if I only have a laptop with WIndowsXP SP3 OS?

archie: How can i study or try PHP programming at home if I only have a laptop with WIndowsXP SP3 OS?
I want to learn PHP programming but I do not have that big server computers or a network of computers. Is it possible to do PHP programming using only a laptop connected only to internet, through a 3g modem; and running on Windows XP SP3 OS? What are the application and/or software that I need to install to make it work?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Brandon
You will be frustrated if you try to study PHP with only remote access to a server.

You could install only PHP but that is going to give you a very handicapped view of the PHP world.

I suggest you install XAMPP or ubuntu with LAMP to give yourself a local web server.

Answer by Ratchetr
You could install XAMPP. That will give you Apache web server, PHP and MySQL. It’s fairly easy to install and setup. See fist link below.
But DO make sure you secure it once installed, otherwise your machine could be vulnerable. Also not hard to do, read the instructions in the second link.

Answer by coolanswerer
The best combo is Apache and PHP. You don’t even need an internet connection though,

Answer by abhishek b
Try Xampp. It will make a localhost server on your computer. After this you can do all your php programming
https://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Answer by husoski
Install the Apache web server on your computer–it will run on XP, and it comes with PHP. The configuration is pretty old-style…you edit one or more configuration files with a text editor. Check the Apache website for installation/getting-started documentation.

Install the IIS 5 web server that comes with XP. Use Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs and select the Add/Remove Windows Components. Test to see that you have a functioning website at https://localhost. The site files will be in C:Inetpubwwwroot. By default, this will support ASP for server-side scripting. Then find, download and install PHP for IIS 5. (Not IIS 7 or later…that only runs on Windows Server, not XP.)

Another option is to use VirtualBox to run a Linux server on a virtual machine. You can still use your XP web deveopment tools and test over a virtualized TCP/IP link. Ubuntu is probably the most popular Linux distro right now. I like Scientific Linux, personally, which is basically Red Hat Enterprise–minus RHE proprietary code–recompiled with only the free, open-source components.

Either with a virtual machine or a local Apache server, it’s probably best to use Apache. That’s what most (all?) of the websites serving PHP on the Internet will be using. People who want MS servers tend to want ASP or ASP.NET. People who use Sun servers tend to use JavaEE and JSP.

Answer by dowen
Wamp server is the best easy to install and configure Apache/PHP/MySQL web server for windows.

Answer by Eris B
In my opinion to be more of a pro buy some cheap hosting to try your examples of there – as when you will work in the future you will be able to work in environments similiar to that since no server will be like your computer.

Answer by GM
Download DVS PHP editor from:
https://download.cnet.com/DSV-PHP-Editor/3000-10248_4-10785704.html
Download PHP help from:
https://php.net/download-docs.php
Download PHP ebook from:
https://www.ebooknetworking.com/phpmysql-tutorial-p-44485.html

Answer by Forman
Wamp server is good for studying.
Try more,you’ll learn faster.