Reader Michael Moro recommended an alternative to WAMP: XAMPP, which in addition to PHP also installs Perl and does so not only on Windows but also on Linux, OS X and Solaris. I tried out both ...

Enter WampServer, an open source product that installs a PHP-apps-ready platform consisting of Apache web server, MySQL database, PHP, plus several helpful GUI-based utilities.

What is the lightweight PHP server for Windows? If you are looking for an open-source PHP server for Windows, then Uniform Server (WAMP server solution) is a nice and lightweight option to try.