{"id":38,"date":"2026-03-28T00:54:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T00:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/?p=38"},"modified":"2026-04-11T05:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:03:47","slug":"set-up-a-local-web-development-environment-on-windows-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/?p=38","title":{"rendered":"set up a local web development environment on Windows 11"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here&#8217;s how to set up a local web development environment on Windows 11:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Option A: Use Laragon (Recommended for Windows)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The easiest approach. <strong>Laragon<\/strong> bundles Nginx, PHP, MySQL, and Composer in one installer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Download from <a href=\"https:\/\/laragon.org\/download\">laragon.org<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Run the installer \u2192 choose <strong>Full<\/strong> version<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Start Laragon \u2192 click <strong>Start All<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Everything runs automatically \u2014 Nginx, MySQL, PHP, and Composer are ready<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2705 Auto virtual hosts, easy PHP version switching, no manual config needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Option B: Manual Installation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. PHP<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Download from <a href=\"https:\/\/windows.php.net\/download\">windows.php.net\/download<\/a> \u2192 get the <strong>Thread Safe<\/strong> ZIP (x64)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extract to <code>C:\\php<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add <code>C:\\php<\/code> to your <strong>System Environment PATH<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Copy <code>php.ini-development<\/code> \u2192 rename to <code>php.ini<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open <code>php.ini<\/code> and uncomment these extensions: <code>extension=curlextension=mbstringextension=opensslextension=pdo_mysqlextension=fileinfo<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Nginx<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Download from <a href=\"https:\/\/nginx.org\/en\/download.html\">nginx.org\/en\/download.html<\/a> \u2192 <strong>Stable version<\/strong> ZIP<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extract to <code>C:\\nginx<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Start it: open CMD in <code>C:\\nginx<\/code> and run <code>nginx.exe<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Test at <code>http:\/\/localhost<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. MySQL<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Download <strong>MySQL Installer<\/strong> from <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.mysql.com\/downloads\/installer\">dev.mysql.com\/downloads\/installer<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Run installer \u2192 choose <strong>Developer Default<\/strong> or <strong>Server Only<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Follow setup wizard, set a root password<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Optionally install <strong>MySQL Workbench<\/strong> for a GUI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Composer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Download installer from <a href=\"https:\/\/getcomposer.org\/download\">getcomposer.org\/download<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Run <code>Composer-Setup.exe<\/code> \u2192 it auto-detects PHP<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Verify: open a new CMD and run <code>composer --version<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Connecting Nginx to PHP (Manual setup only)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Edit <code>C:\\nginx\\conf\\nginx.conf<\/code> \u2014 find the PHP location block and update it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>location ~ \\.php$ {\n    root           C:\/nginx\/html;\n    fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;\n    fastcgi_index  index.php;\n    fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_name;\n    include        fastcgi_params;\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Then start PHP-FPM in a separate CMD window:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>php-cgi -b 127.0.0.1:9000\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Verify Everything Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>php --version        # PHP version\nnginx -v             # Nginx version\nmysql --version      # MySQL version\ncomposer --version   # Composer version\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udca1 Recommendation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re building a <strong>Laravel<\/strong> or <strong>WordPress<\/strong> app, go with <strong>Laragon<\/strong> \u2014 it saves hours of config and handles virtual hosts automatically. Manual setup is better if you need precise control over versions or server config.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-0836882562007038\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\n<!-- wework-banner -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0836882562007038\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"3613745902\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s how to set up a local web development environment on Windows 11: Option A: Use Laragon (Recommended for Windows)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-programming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75,"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/75"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weworknetwork.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}