Hi, I'm Sadique! 👋

Multiple PHP version setup in Xampp server

Hey, you can easily run multiple PHP version in your system and only on specific drive ( single directory ex: C,D..drive ) in your Xampp server.

These technique helps you to run multiple PHP version in an instance. suppose your project run only on PHP 5.4 and you also have another project which is in PHP 7.4 and you want to run both the project simultaneously.

From the below process you can easly run both the project.

Screenshots

Roadmap

Change your virtual host
Add PHP versions

Change Your Virtual Host

To change host go to the link down below. I installed in D folder so it look like these it might be different in your PC it depend on where Xampp is installed.

  D:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf

Open in editor and remove ## from ##NameVirtualHost *:80 we basically do uncomment these line

  NameVirtualHost *:80

and finally add the code on the last. my bydefault PHP version is PHP 7.4 so it is come on top below default PHP version you can any numbers of PHP version.

  ## PHP 7.4
  <VirtualHost *:80>
      DocumentRoot "D:\xampp\htdocs\php74"
      ServerName localhost.php74
      <Directory "D:\xampp\htdocs\php74">
          Require all granted    
      </Directory>
      <FilesMatch "\.php$">
          SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-cgi
      </FilesMatch>
      ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host2.example.com-error.log"
      CustomLog "logs/dummy-host2.example.com-access.log" common
  </VirtualHost>

   ## PHP 5.6.40
   <VirtualHost *:80>
       DocumentRoot "D:\xampp\htdocs\php56"
       ServerName localhost.php56
       <Directory "D:\xampp\htdocs\php56">
           Require all granted    
       </Directory>
       <FilesMatch "\.php$">
           SetHandler application/x-httpd-php56-cgi
       </FilesMatch>
       ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-error.log"
       CustomLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-access.log" common
   </VirtualHost>

Now, install the software to add server name go to the link and download it https://hostsfileeditor.com/ add your server name 'localhost.php56' and save

Add PHP Version

You have to add some code in httpd-xampp.conf file the location of these file is D:\xampp\apache\conf\extra my Xampp is store in D drive.

       #PHP 7.4
       ScriptAlias /php "D:/xampp/php"
       Action application/x-httpd-php-cgi /php/php-cgi.exe
       <Directory "D:/xampp/php">
           AllowOverride None
           Options None
           Require all denied
           <Files "php-cgi.exe">
               Require all granted
           </Files>
           SetEnv PHPRC "D:/xampp/php"
       </Directory>

       #PHP 5.6.40
       ScriptAlias /php56 "D:/xampp/php56"
       Action application/x-httpd-php56-cgi /php56/php-cgi.exe
       <Directory "D:/xampp/php56">
           AllowOverride None
           Options None
           Require all denied
           <Files "php-cgi.exe">
               Require all granted
           </Files>
           SetEnv PHPRC "D:/xampp/php56"
       </Directory>

After adding the code now download all PHP version which you need from the link https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/archives/ .

Let suppose you download php-7.4.20-nts-Win32-vc15-x64.zip file here you have to notice one thing go for nts.

The vc15 stand for ( Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable package ) or simply search vc15 download.

Now extract the zip and make folder like php54 on Xampp folder and paste the extract file inside php54 if you downloaded php 5.4 version.

In the next step go inside htdocs folder and create same folder name php54 here your all project belongs to these folder. Remember these is php version 5.4 so these only support php 5.4 projects.

Inside the php54 we saw the extracted file and folder we have to focus on php.ini-development and php ini production file just copy and past any one file and rename it as php.ini file.