Running XAMPP without installing from a folder

[appyape]

I need to have multiple php versions on my local Windows 8 machine so I have downloaded .zip file of XAMPP 5.6.3 ... I have renamed the folder to Xampp-php-5.6.3. When I try to Start the Apache or MySQL it doesn't start. After a bit of look around - I opened httpd.conf and noticed that the ServerRoot was set to /xampp/apache - I changed this to /xampp-php-5.6.3/apache. I then opened up mysql.exe and I can see the folder name is /xampp/....

I can manually change all these values in httpd.conf and my.ini but I need to know what other files need modifications??

or is there any other simpler way to achieve what I am doing?

I already have php5.3 and php5.4 working this way but I can't remember how I got them working. any help will be appreciated. thanks

[Nobbie]

I need to have multiple php versions on my local Windows 8 machine so I have downloaded .zip file of XAMPP 5.6.3

A few days ago i wrote a german posting here in this forum which exactly explains how to do so (but its german), without the hassle of renaming the Xampp installation. The idea behind my solution is based on using different VirtualHosts for different PHP Versions within one and only one Xampp installation:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=67753&start=15#p240553

[appyape]

do these diff php version share single mysql installation?

[Altrea]

It the paths of the installation path is your only problem, simply execute the setup_xampp.bat File which will correct all neccessary paths.

Nobbies explaination is valid too if you want to integrate multiple php versions to one single xampp installation. But this is more The advanced solution

[appyape]

yes Altrea. I actually managed to figure that out that I needed to execute the setup_xampp.bat file to correct the paths. And it works perfectly now.

i have got 3 different xampp versions on my local now with PHP 5.3, PHP 5.4 and PHP 5.6.3 ... happy days!