This tutorial takes you through the steps involved in the installation of Apache 2.2.X server on Windows.

Note: My installation is on Windows Vista.

Step 1 - Download Apache 2 For Windows

Go to the Apache 2 For Windows Download Page and choose a mirror from which you would like to download the server. The version you will need is the Win32 Binaries (MSI Installer) version.

Note that there is one version with and one without OpenSSL support. Choose whichever you need. If you are not sure then go for the one without. You can always add OpenSSL support later.

The file that I downloaded was: apache_2.2.11-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi

Step 2 Run The Installation Program

Run the installation program.

I was setting up a development machine so I used the following options for the server:
Network Domain: localhost
Server Name: localhost
Admin Email: put your email address here

On the next screen I choose a typical apache 2 installation.

Step 3 - Test Your Apache 2 Windows Installation

Once you finish the installation Apache automatically starts and adds an icon to your system tray. You can test your installation by opening a browser and typing in localhost as the address you are interested in. You should then see a web page that says It works! as in the following screenshot:

You have now successfully installed Apache 2 on Windows.

Step 4 - Set Up Your Document Root

This is where you set the directory where your web pages are served from.

Go to Start->All Prograsm->Appache HTTP Server 2.2->Configure Apache Server->Edit the Apache httpd.conf configuration file

And set the following two variables to your chosen directory. In my case I went for C:/public_htdocs

1 Set the DocumentRoot

2 Set The Directory

Make sure to save your changes.

Stop and restart your server for the changes to take effect.

You have now successfully set up Apache 2 on Windows Vista.

Just pop your web pages into the directory you have chosen and all should be well.

So for example in my case I put a web page index.html into the C:/public_htdocs directory, and when I go to my browser and type in localhost/index.html my page is displayed