There are a bunch of articles on the Internet about setting up Apache Server, no matter what your operating system.  I’d suggest doing a search on Google and read a few articles pertaining to the setup on your operating system – just for background.

After doing your reading and getting a pretty good idea what you’re getting into, download the software from the Apache Software Foundation . There are several files available for download: the one you want – for a Windows OS – is the Win32 Binary (MSI Installer) file. As an example, the one I downloaded (on July 25,2007) was named apache_2.2.4-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi;  you’ll want the latest version, whatever that is at this time.

Running the .msi file will install Apache Server using their installation wizard. You’ll have to make a few decisions along the way, but not many.

The first thing you’ll be asked for is “Server Information.” The usually recommended settings are:

Network Domain: localhost
Server Name: localhost
Admin Email: (your any email)

You can choose some other name as the default for your hosted files, or just go with these default names and change the name(s) later if you so choose. I think the important thing to keep in mind is that Apache Server is almost infinitely configurable: you can’t make any decisions in the set-up (except where to install it) that can’t be easily changed by editing a configuration file… later, at your leisure.

It will ask for whom to install Apache. Select for All Users, on Port 80, as a Service.

Then, choose the the “Typical installation” setting.

And finally it will ask where to install it. The default path is C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation under which a directory called Apache2.2 will be created by default. If you want it installed somewhere else, now’s the time to choose. I chose to  installed my copy on my Web Development drive, rather than their default, so my copy wound up installed on: D:\Apache2.2.   Most people will probably choose the default.

Once you’ve finished the installation, open your browser and go to either: http://127.0.0.1/ or http://localhost/. If it shows the It works! page you have your server software installed and running. But you’re not quite through… On to the configuration page.