Download NGINX and PHP Windows binaries mentioned in the information box. Copy NGINX to a suitable directory. For example, we have a completely separate D drive for development purposes. Copy NGINX to this development drive or any other directory. Now, copy PHP either to the NGINX directory or to any other secure folder location.

In the PHP directory, there will be two .ini files, php.ini-development and php.ini-production. Rename either one of them to php.ini. PHP will be using this configuration file.

Hold the Shift key and right click in the PHP directory to open the command-line window. The command-line window will be opened in the same location path. Issue the following command to start PHP:

php-cgi –b 127.0.0.1:9000

The –b option starts PHP and binds to the path for external FastCGI servers. The preceding command binds PHP to loop back the 127.0.0.1 IP on port 9000. Now, PHP is accessible on this path.

To configure NGINX, open the nginx_folder/conf/nginx.conf file. The first thing to do is to add root and index to the server block, as follows:

server {
  root html;
  index index.php index.html index.htm;

Now, we need to configure NGINX to use PHP as FastCGI on the path mentioned before on which it is started. In the nginx.conf file, uncomment the following location block for PHP:

location ~ \.php$ {
  fastcgi_pass    127.0.0.1:9000;
  fastcgi_param    SCRIPT_FILENAME complete_path_webroot_folder$fastcgi_script_name;
include    fastcgi_params;
}

Note the fastcgi_param option. The highlighted complete_path_webroot_folder path should be the absolute path to the HTML directory inside the nginx folder. Let's say that your NGINX is placed at the D:\nginx path; then, the absolute path to the HTML folder will be D:\nginx\html. However, for the preceding fastcgi_param option, \ should be replaced by /.

Now, restart NGINX by issuing the following command in the root of the NGINX folder:

nginx –s restart

After NGINX is restarted, open your browser and enter the IP or hostname of your Windows server or machine, and we will see the NGINX welcome message.

Now, to verify the PHP installation and its working with NGINX, create an info.php file in webroot and enter the following code in it:

<?php
  phpinfo();
?>

Now, in the browser, access your_ip/info.php, and we will be presented with a page full of PHP and server information. Congratulations! We configured NGINX and PHP to work perfectly together.