This tutorial is a shorter version of the previous post upgrading to PHP 7.1 on Windows 10 and it is intended as a follow-up on how to upgrade your PHP to the latest version (in this case PHP 7.2) if you have already installed the previous version of PHP 7 in your Windows system.

Steps to Upgrade from PHP 7.1 to PHP 7.2

1. Download PHP for Windows. Since we’re using PHP as FastCGI, we’ll use the 64-bit Non-Thread Safe (NTS) version (i.e., php-7.2.1-nts-Win32-VC15-x64.zip).

2. PHP 7.2 is also the first version that requires Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2017. If you don’t have it installed, you can download it from here (64-bit). If you have a 32-bit OS, please check on the download section below and select the one for x86.

3. We also need to upgrade our WinCache version for PHP 7.2. Download the WinCache php_wincache-2.0.0.8-7.2-nts-vc15-x64 and extract the file as well.

   

4. Extract both downloaded zip files (just double-click them and they will be extracted into their sub-folders) as shown below:

   

5. If you check the WinCache folder php_wincache-2.0.0.8-7.2-nts-vc15-x64, look for two files with the following names: php_wincache.dll and php_wincache.pdb.

6. Copy the two files from the WinCache folder to a sub-folder (“ext”) within the PHP folder (i.e., php-7.2.1-nts-Win32-VC15-x64/ext).

   

7. Now, copy the whole content of php_wincache-2.0.0.8-7.2-nts-vc15-x64 folder into a new folder and name it v7.2.

   

8. Copy the php.ini file from v7.1 to v7.2.

9. You might want to modify certain parameters in the php.ini as highlighted below:

   [WebPIChanges]
   error_log=C:\WINDOWS\temp\PHP72x64_errors.log
   upload_tmp_dir=C:\WINDOWS\temp
   session.save_path=C:\WINDOWS\temp
   cgi.force_redirect=0
   cgi.fix_pathinfo=1
   fastcgi.impersonate=1
   fastcgi.logging=0
   max_execution_time=300
   date.timezone=Australia/Melbourne
   extension_dir="C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.2\ext\"
   

   And make sure you also have the PHP_WINCACHE set.

   [PHP_WINCACHE]
   extension=php_wincache.dll
   

   The change is pretty simple and we can compare the two php.ini files between v7.1 and v7.2 as below:

   

10. Open IIS Manager and click on FastCGI Settings.

    

11. You can create a new entry for PHP 7.2 by following Step 8 from previous post, except for PHPRC where you want to update the value to 7.2 (i.e., C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.2).

    Once completed, just click OK.

    

12. Go back to IIS Manager and click on Handler Mappings.

    

13. Look for PHP_via_FastCGI and double-click on it. Make sure the path for the Executable is updated accordingly. Click OK when done.

    

Update Windows Environment Variables

Finally, once again we need to update the path of the new PHP in Windows Environment Variables.

1. Click on the Windows start button and type in “system” and click on System Control panel.

   

2. In System window, click on Advanced system settings and on System Properties window, make sure you have Advanced tab opened. And you can follow the path shown in the picture to update the path to where your PHP 7.2 is located.

   

3. Click on Environment Variables… button.

4. Under System Variables, click on Path and Edit… button.

5. Click on where the current PHP is located and double-click it or click on Edit button.

6. Change the value to the location of the new PHP (i.e., C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.2)

7. Click OK button on each window to close.

That’s it! Now using the same test.php file with the following code:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Run it from your browser (i.e., http://localhost/test.php). If PHP is installed with the correct version, you will see the PHP version will be updated similar to the picture below:

Further Reading

How to Install PHP on Windows 10 Using Web Platform Installer
FastCGI
Difference between PHP thread safe and non thread safe binaries
Using FastCGI to Host PHP Applications on IIS 7
WinCache Extension for PHP

Download

Download PHP For Windows: Binaries and sources Releases
WinCache 2.0.0.8 PHP Extension Direct Download
Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2017

This setup should only be used as PHP development environment on Windows as it has not been tested on production.

If you followed the steps from the previous post on PHP installation on Windows using Web Platform Installer, you will now have PHP 7.0 to do your web development.

The problem using Web Platform Installer (WPI) is that most likely you won’t be using the latest version of PHP (at the time of this writing, it’s 7.0.15 and 7.1.1 and WPI only gives you version 7.0.9).

Fortunately, if you want to upgrade to the latest version, you can do it manually in a few simple steps described below.

Before we start, please keep in mind that this installation is for a local PHP server on IIS, not Apache web server.

Steps to Upgrade PHP to 7.1

1. Open Control Panel, click on Programs and Features, and then Turn Windows features on or off. Under Internet Information Services, World Wide Web Services, Application Development Features, make sure that option CGI is checked. This enables both the CGI and FastCGI services, which is recommended for PHP applications.

   

2. Download PHP for Windows. Since we’re using PHP as FastCGI, we’ll use the 64-bit Non-Thread Safe (NTS) version (i.e., php-7.1.1-nts-Win32-VC14-x64.zip).

3. Extract file php-7.1.1-nts-Win32-VC14-x64.zip to its own folder.

4. Copy your current PHP7 installation from v7.0 and rename the copy to v7.1.

   

5. Copy all files from the PHP7 zip folder (Step 3) to the new renamed v7.1 folder (Step 4).

6. Edit the php.ini (C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.1\php.ini) to reflect the new version (7.1) under [WebPIChanges] as shown below (see highlighted changes):

   [WebPIChanges]
   error_log=C:\WINDOWS\temp\PHP71x64_errors.log
   upload_tmp_dir=C:\WINDOWS\temp
   session.save_path=C:\WINDOWS\temp
   cgi.force_redirect=0
   cgi.fix_pathinfo=1
   fastcgi.impersonate=1
   fastcgi.logging=0
   max_execution_time=300
   date.timezone=Australia/Melbourne
   extension_dir="C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.1\ext\"
   
   [ExtensionList]
   ;extension=php_mysql.dll
   extension=php_mysqli.dll
   extension=php_mbstring.dll
   extension=php_gd2.dll
   extension=php_gettext.dll
   extension=php_curl.dll
   extension=php_exif.dll
   extension=php_xmlrpc.dll
   extension=php_openssl.dll
   extension=php_soap.dll
   extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll
   extension=php_pdo_sqlite.dll
   extension=php_imap.dll
   extension=php_tidy.dll
   
   [PHP_WINCACHE]
   extension=php_wincache.dll
   

   

   Please note the change in line 1857. Although it’s not related to PHP upgrade, you need to double check that the extension=php_mysql.dll is either commented out or deleted.

   MySQL extension was deprecated on PHP version 5.5 and removed on version 7. If it’s not excluded, you’ll see the following error:

   PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.1\ext\php_mysql.dll' - The specified module could not be found.
   
   in Unknown on line 0
   

   Line 1872-1873 are for WinCache setting. Just make sure it’s there or else you will also encounter an error.

7. Open IIS Manager and click on FastCGI Settings.

   

8. Double-click on the PHP 7.0 settings and copy all the property values including the Environment Variables (PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS, PHPRC) and Advanced Settings. We’re just going to reuse all the values from the existing installation instead of starting from scratch.

   Click Cancel button after you’re done.

   

   

   

9. Now from FastCGI Settings window, click on Add Application… on the Actions pane on the right.

   

10. Type in C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.1\php-cgi.exe on the Full Path box.

11. Enter all values you copied from Step 8, except for PHPRC where you want to update the value to 7.1 (i.e., C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.1).

    Once completed, just click OK.

12. Go back to IIS Manager and click on Handler Mappings.

    

13. Look for PHP_via_FastCGI and double-click on it.

    

14. Locate the new php-cgi.exe and change the value on the Executable (optional): accordingly. Click Yes when there’s a dialog box asking you to create a FastCGI application for this executable.

    Click OK and exit IIS Manager.

    

Update WinCache Extension for PHP

Once PHP is upgraded to version 7.1 you may run into another issue with your WinCache PHP extension with an error message as follow.

PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: wincache: Unable to initialize module
Module compiled with module API=20151012
PHP    compiled with module API=20160303
These options need to match

in Unknown on line 0

This error was caused by an outdated version of WinCache. PHP 7.1 requires a new WinCache binaries. Look for them in the PECL packages or you can download it directly from this link.

Installation should be straightforward. Just extract the zip file and follow the instructions.

Update Windows Environment Variables

Finally, we need to update the path of the new PHP in Windows Environment Variables.

1. Click on the Windows start button and type in “system” and click on System Control panel.

   

2. In System window, click on Advanced system settings and on System Properties window, make sure you have Advanced tab opened. And you can follow the path shown in the picture to complete the rest of the steps.

   

3. Click on Environment Variables… button.

4. Under System Variables, click on Path and Edit… button.

5. Click on where the current PHP is located and double-click it or click on Edit button.

6. Change the value to the location of the new PHP (i.e., C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.1)

7. Click OK button on each window to close.

That’s all there is. Now you can test your PHP installation by creating a test.php file with this PHP code.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Run it from your browser (i.e., http://localhost/test.php). If PHP is installed with the correct version, you will see something similar to this:

Compared with previous version of PHP installation on Windows:

Further Reading

How to Install PHP on Windows 10 Using Web Platform Installer
How to Upgrade to PHP 7.2 on IIS (Windows 10)
FastCGI
Difference between PHP thread safe and non thread safe binaries
Using FastCGI to Host PHP Applications on IIS 7
WinCache Extension for PHP

Download

Download PHP For Windows: Binaries and sources Releases
WinCache 2.0.0.8 PHP Extension Direct Download
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3

If you need to install a PHP on your local Windows machine with Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft has already provided a way where you can do it fairly quickly using WPI.

Keep in mind though, this setup has not been tested for production environment. So only use it as a PHP development environment for Windows.

Steps

1. Open Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off. Under Internet Information Services -> World Wide Web Services -> Application Development Features, make sure that option CGI is checked. This enables both the CGI and FastCGI services.

   

2. Download Web Platform Installer. For this example for Windows 10 64-bit, it’s the WebPI 5.0 x64.

3. Double-click on WebPlatformInstaller_amd64_en-US.msi to install it.

4. Once installed, you should see a file with the name wpilauncher.exe. Double-click it.

5. When you see the Window, click on the Products link and search for “php” and press ENTER.

   

6. Add PHP 7.0.9 (x64) (or later version if available) as an item to install. Selecting this will automatically add Windows Cache Extension and PHP Manager for IIS.

   

7. (Optional) If you need to connect to SQL Server using PHP, you need to install Microsoft Drivers 4.0 (x64) for PHP v7.0 for SQL Server in IIS.

8. Click on Install button.

   

The downside of this installation is probably WPI may have a mind on its own and install other components that you didn’t choose as shown below:

If you see a failed installation for PHP Manager for IIS like above, don’t worry about it. That component is only used to provide a GUI for managing PHP from IIS. You can still use the command line and text editor to make configuration changes.

As always you can always test your PHP installation by creating a test.php file with this PHP code.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

And run it from your browser (i.e., http://localhost/test.php). If PHP is installed correctly, you will see something similar to this:

You may notice that the version of PHP installed using WPI is usually several versions behind the release version. Fortunately, you can always download PHP for Windows yourself and upgrade your PHP installation on Windows to a newer version with just a few additional steps explained on this post.

Further Reading

How to Upgrade to PHP 7.1 on Windows 10
How to Upgrade from PHP 7.1 to PHP 7.2 on IIS (Windows 10)
How to Activate Built-in Web Server
FastCGI
Using FastCGI to Host PHP Applications on IIS 7

Download

Web Platform Installer Direct Downloads