How to Download an Apache Server – Guide

There are several reasons why developers or DevOps professionals install Apache Web Server locally on a Windows 10 machine. You can use Apache HTTP server to test or simulate a production HTTP server acting as a static file cache for Apache Tomcat or Jetty . Maybe they just want an internal web server for the office. Fortunately, installing Apache HTTP Server on Windows is relatively easy. However, you need to be aware of some limitations. A web server is software that listens for requests and returns data (usually a file). the request is sent to a computer running web server software, which sends a file back to your browser, for example the contents of index.html. The browser may make additional requests based on HTML content such as CSS, JavaScript, and graphics files. Because the web server sits between the browser and the requested file, it can perform processing that opening an HTML file directly cannot. For example, it can parse PHP code that connects to a database and returns data. In general, it’s fine to use whatever web server software your host uses. Unless you’re building ASP.NET applications on top of Microsoft IIS, your host is probably using Apache – the most widely used and comprehensive web server available. It’s an open source project, so it doesn’t cost anything to download or install.

Configure IIS

Apache listens for requests on TCP/IP port 80. You need to uninstall or disable any programs that use this port. If you have a Professional or Server version of Windows, you may already have IIS installed. If you prefer Apache, remove IIS as a Windows component or disable its services.

download the files

Let’s use Apache Lounge’s unofficial Windows binary. This release has performance and stability improvements over the official Apache distribution, although I still haven’t noticed a significant difference.

extract the files

Let’s install Apache on C:/Apache24, so extract the ZIP file to the root of the C:/ drive. Apache can be installed anywhere on your system, but you will need to change the SVROOT configuration to point to the unzipped location — such as E:/Apache24.

Configure Apache

Apache is configured with the text file conf/httpd.conf contained in the Apache folder. Open it with your favorite text editor. Note that all file path settings use a forward slash (/) instead of the Windows backslash. If you’ve installed Apache anywhere other than C:/Apache24, now is a good time to search and replace all references to C:/Apache24.

There are several lines you should change for your production environment:

Change the root of the webpage (optional)

By default, Apache returns files found in your C:/Apache24/htdocs folder. It’s good to use a folder on another drive or partition to make backups and reinstallation easier. For the purposes of this example, we will create a folder called D:WebPages and change httpd.conf accordingly:

Test your installation

Your Apache configuration can now be tested. Open a command box (Start > Run > cmd) and type: It should say “Syntax OK”. If not, correct any httpd.conf configuration errors and retest until none appear.

install apache as a windows service

The easiest way to start Apache is to add it as a Windows service. Open a new command prompt as an administrator and type the following: Open Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and double-click Apache2.4. Set the startup type to “Automatic” to ensure that Apache starts every time you boot your PC.

Test the web server

Make sure Apache started successfully, open a web browser and enter the address http://localhost/. If all goes well, your test page should appear. In general, most problems will be caused by an incorrect configuration in the httpd.conf configuration file. Consult the Apache documentation if you need more information.

Final note

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