XAMPP (eXtendable Apache MySQL PHP Perl, I think) is a quick and easy package for portable web development. It’s main purpose is to be an easy-to-install distribution for developers to get into the world of Apache. To make it convenient for developers XAMPP is configured with all features turned on. Just install one package to get a complete website back-end in minutes.

The default configuration includes the latest versions of the following:

• Apache – The base webserver
• SSL – SSL so you can browse via https://
• MySQL – Database backend
• PHP – Server-side scripting
• phpMyAdmin – Simple web based interface for managing the database

In addition to the defaults, the package includes many other additions, such as mod_rewrite, that just need to be enabled via a config file change.

The windows version is also built as a lite package which does not need to be setup! Just copy to your portable thumb drive and go!