Folk,

I give up.  I've been fighting this problem for a couple of weeks, now, and cannot deduce or find a resolution.

I've installed Apache 2.2, PHP 5.x, & MySQL on a 64-bit Win7 box.  However, PHP files merely display the page as PHP code, at best.  Both Apache and PHP are 32-bit, MySQL is 64-bit.  The box in question is an Intel i3 4-core, 4 GB RAM.
I had the same problem with Win XP, and I think I had it with Win 2K.  However, I do not recall what resolved it.

All the Apache and PHP forum efforts have been treated as RTFM, with an automatic assumption that the manual has not been read  :mad:.  Google [many] searches have revealed a significant number of resolutions - none of which have worked for me.  Some of those resolutions involved WAMP/XAMPP, but that hasn't worked, either.  I dislike using WAMP/XAMPP for several reasons, but I tried both, anyway.  The results were significantly less than optimal  :'(.

Bottom line - one of 'em, at least - is that I cannot test a couple of gigs of Web code on the laptop.  While I can run against the server just fine, I'm not always connected to the server.  Since I'm likely to experience vascular surgery in the near future, I really need to get the laptop up to speed in this respect, as there is no reason carving my drumstick(s) should keep me non-productive (if ever I was that  ;D).

As I recall previous corrections for the older OSes, it was httpd.conf & php.ini corrections, but I cannot remember those for the life of me.  If needful to see those files, I can put 'em up on a site - they're too long to post here, methinks.

My naval buddy called this weekend, checking to see how the laptop(s) config process is going.

He's all gung-ho over something a shipmate fed him about a headless [Ubuntu] server.  Now he wants to do that with his home desktop system.  Granted, it would allow him a bit more room, i.e., no monitor or keyboard space, but I'm kinda dubious 'bout the concept.  He's wild about the idea, wants to admin with Webmin from his laptop.

I can perceive the advantages, but not familiar enough to identify the downside(s). 

The box he's discussing currently runs WinXP and is used as a kinda,sorta file server as well as a desktop machine.  Now that he has the laptop(s) he wants to convert it.

My preference would be that he install Ubuntu desktop, then add server components as needed.  That doesn't seem to be, in a home environment, overly insecure, and he was born, in the PC sense, A.D. (After DOS), so I've got a life-sized picture of trying to help him with command-line over the phone.  He's accustomed to a GUI, and I'm not certain Webmin would be sufficient.

Haven't found anything definitive, one way or the other, via Google.  Thus, I've returned to the wealth of knowledge that is DC for information. 

Have a friend who is about to start a sailing school.  He has an established Web presence on sailing schtuff, decent page rank, reasonable traffic, all the little things that seem to matter.

Seems as though, lately, everybody and their {brother|mother|sister|father|friend|cousin|wife} is asking for advice  ;).  The Capt. wants to know some stuff 'bout adding his new business to his Web site.  I'm thinkin' he'd be best off with some CMS, but am hard put to recommend a suitable one.  I'm aware of Joomla, Drupal, have a bit of experience with Concrete5 (?), but hard put to recommend one to him.  Searched here, but nothing found seemed appropriate to this situation.

He's middlin' conversant with HTML, a bit less with PHP, but he did manage to put together a [pretty good] PHP/MySQL-driven sales page (with a bit of help), when he and his SO were selling jewelry and Chinese stuff , in order to record clients, addresses, email, and other such business info.  Now he needs to revamp - not totally rebuild - his sailing site to include references to, and content from, his training/school.  He can add appropriate links & static commentary, but wants to be able to display notes from the training classes.  Sea stories, as it were, important bits about his students, their questions, and his resolutions to those questions.  Mostly, these would be teasers to entice other students, ya know?  They'd change on a periodic basis, perhaps every class.

Strikes me that a CMS would be ideal, something his admin could do from his class notes, but don't have a clue as to which one would best serve his purposes.  Don't want to start a flame war - I've seen questions like this do so on other forae; don't think that would happen on DC - but I'd really like suggestions as to a CMS that would

• be easily adaptable to existing page(s)
• be simple enough that a low-rent admin could enter appropriate material w/o Web page knowledge
• be readily expandable in case his endeavour blooms

.

Thus, I'm once again asking for help.  (Oneathesedays I'm going to be able to help someone else - I hope and pray.)  Is there some CMS variant that would even come close to filling that bill of particulars?  Minimal learning curve, maximal adaptability?