1. The most recent version of XAMPP can be downloaded from here. The most recent version, at the time of this writing, is 8.1.6

1. Run the installation file. When prompted for the installation directory, I always place it immediately inside the C:\ drive (i.e., C:\xampp). It makes things easier to deal with down the road

1. Once the installation is completed, you can run the application by searching for 'XAMPP Control Panel.' You might want to pin it to your Start menu by right-clicking the icon and selecting 'Pin to Start'

1. Start the Apache and MySQL servers from the control panel

1. Projects for XAMPP are stored in a subdirectory within C:\xampp named htdocs. You can access them in a browser using the localhost address

I use XAMPP in conjunction with Github. So my actual source files are stored somewhere else on the hard drive (C:\Users\jram7\Documents\Github). So, to make it work, I create a link in C:\xampp\htdocs that points to the actual location of the file

1. To create a link, run the Windows command line (cmd.exe) or PowerShell (powershell.exe)

1. Change directories to C:\xampp\htdocs. Make a note of the absolute path to the location your files are stored in. Then run the following command

If you double-click on the link, it will actually take you to the location that the files are stored. Likewise, if you enter localhost/csci1720.net/index.php in the browser's address bar, the landing page for the site will display, loaded from the local drive

1. There's an extension for VS Code that is supposed to make it easier to launch a server-side page in the browser, but I've found that configuring it is a bit of a PITA, so I usually just type in the localhost/ address in the browser

That's all you need to start using XAMPP as a sandbox for web site development! Since most of the pages on this site are written in PHP (which we'll hopefully have time to look at this semester), I use XAMPP all the time. It is a similar, if not identical, environment you're likely to encounter in a professional setting