I'm very new to PHP so I hope someone can help.

I've got Windows XP Professional and have installed IIS. I followed the installation instructions in the book but I kept getting "cannot display page". So I removed stated files and reinstalled IIS to see if it was a general problem with IIS. Result: "Cannot display page".

I then unchecked "show friendly URL errors" and tried again. this time I got a Server Application Error with the following error:

"The server has encountered an error while loading an application during the processing of your request. Please refer to the event log for more detail information. Please contact the server administrator for assistance."

I've looked for the event log but it doesn't given much information, apart from stating that it tried to GET iisstart.asp 500. Anybody got any ideas - I'm at a loss.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Did you get PHP installed?

I keep forgetting that my memory is slipping.

please install easyphp from www.easyphp.org on windows. because it works nice and gives u good results.

bye
sharma

God Knows better than US

I originally followed all the instructions in 'Beginning PHP' for installing with IIS and then tried to test it, but I get the same problem when IIS has been configured with and without PHP installed and configured.

Although it suggests IIS for Windows NT (and probably XP), would Apache work just as well on a Windows XP Professional system do you think?

Thanks for your responses they are appreciated.

I've just had a thought - which services need to be running in Windows XP Professional in order to use my computer as a server? Some of my services were switched off such as DNS server, but I'm thinking they may be needed. Anyone know?

I have the same setup: XP Pro and IIS V5.1.
Under Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs ->Add/Remove Windows Components ->Details on IIS (should be checked already)->all of the subcomponents should be checked.

It sounds like IIS loaded ok, 'cause you said you loaded PHP4, and then on page 28, IIS launched ok? Is it page 36 that's bombing? Like no php version coming up? It'll look just like the book example. The address of the SMTP Server should be 'localhost'.

Yeap. Can start IIS no problem, but when I come to test the page (pg36 as you said) I get 'server application error'. I've tried looking for similar problems around the Web, but they get explicit error messages in the event log, whereas I only get the following every time.

#Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.1
#Version: 1.0
#Date: 2003-11-01 16:00:37
#Fields: time c-ip cs-method cs-uri-stem sc-status
16:00:37 127.0.0.1 GET /iisstart.asp 500

It's frustrating. I've followed the book precisely and it won't work. I've used http://localhost/ , http://127.0.0.1/ and my machine name but I get the same problem.

I appreciate your help.

What happens if you just type in http://localhost/ Do you get both of the:
http://localhost/localstart.asp
and the
http://localhost/iishelp/iis/misc/default.asp
pages?

I keep forgetting that my memory is slipping.

I'm betting that's okay. Maybe it's a problem with the web server root directory. It should be C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\, so all files should reside there (or in some sub-directory like C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\myphp\learning\phpinfo.php).

When you generated the phpinfo.php file, did you use notepad? The file extension has to be .php, and it seems that MS word was squirrely about the extension for me. I bought Homesite 5.0 and it's great.

I get the same errors for both the files iisstart.asp and phpinfo.php. The file extensions are correct too.

I'm going to try uninstalling, then completely removing the files and folders manually before reinstalling and see what happens. I'm not optimistic though.

k. looks like IIS didn't get installed correctly then if the http://localhost/ didn't work. Keep the faith, you'll get it going. Just follow the instructions to the letter.