Screengrab of WampServer home page

The internet is a great resource - when you can find the right step-by-step instructions at just the right level of depth.

I had recently spent several hours trying to install WAMP Server on a laptop, using instructions cobbled together from multiple sources, and trying out all manner of ultimately unnecessary fixes.

I finally got it to work. And as with a lot of things, once it has been worked out, it is quite straightforward. I am posting my steps here in case it helps someone out there.

WAMP Server is an all-in-one environment for developing web applications using PHP and MySQL databases, using Apache as the web server. These instructions are for installing WAMP Server 64-bit on the 64-bit version of Windows 10 Professional.

  1. Remove all existing installations of Apache, MySQL, and other apps that install these WIndows services.
  2. Disable all IIS services. Use the "Turn Windows features on and off" control panel to deselect all items related to IIS.
  3. Remove Skype (or reconfigure it to leave ports 80 and 443.) I removed Skype on my setup.
  4. Download and run (right-click, run as administrator) the following from Microsoft.
    MSVCR140.dll version 14 is needed for Apache to run.
    Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2015.
    Select your desired language, click Download, and choose "vc_redist.x64.exe"
    Only the x64 version is needed.
  5. Download and run (as administrator) the following from Microsoft
    MSVCR120.dll version 12 is needed for MySQL to run.
    Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013.
    Select language, click Download, and both "vcredist_x64.exe" and "vcredist_x86.exe"
    Both x64 and x86 versions must be installed.
  6. Download "wampserver3.1.3_x64.exe" from GitHub.
    Run the installer as administrator.
    I chose to use Chorme as the browser and Notepad++ as the text editor.
  7. Double-click the "WampServer64" icon to start the services. The icon on the task bar notification area should go from red to amber then green.
  8. You should now be able to access the newly set up web server using http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1 on your browser.

By default, this setup's web server is not visible from other machines on your network. This setup is also not suitable for deploying live applications.