Php – How to uninstall a Web Platform Installer (WPI) installation of PHP

PHPweb-platform-installer

We've installed PHP on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box using Web Platform Installer (WPI) 3.0.x.

However, I'd like to uninstall PHP (5.3 in particular, leaving 5.2 as-is). Unfortunately, an uninstall option doesn't exist in Programs and Features, and in the past I've only upgraded PHP installs, and not had to do an uninstall. (Based on the lack of answers I've found online, it seems this is the case generally as well.)

I realize that I can leave the extra install there, but for the sake of a having a clean server, and making it rather obvious what version of PHP is being used, I'd like to remove the installation.

I suppose I could also remove the install directory – C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v5.3 – but that doesn't feel right.

PHP Manager is also installed (also via WPI), but I see no way to remove an installation, only add.

Best Answer

This link has instructions on how to manually remove a version of PHP from IIS on Windows 7. I would think the instructions for Windows Server 2008 would be similar. It seems to be instructing you to edit the applicationHost.config file and delete the folder.

http://forums.iis.net/t/1178803.aspx

From the link:

Open %userprofile%\documents\iisexpress\config\applicationhost.config file and:

  1. Find following entry (or similar entry) in applicationhost.config file and comment it or delete it.

    <application fullPath="C:\Program Files\iis express\PHP\v5.2\php-cgi.exe" monitorChangesTo="php.ini" activityTimeout="600" requestTimeout="600" instanceMaxRequests="10000">
    <environmentVariables>
        <environmentVariable name="PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS" value="10000" />
        <environmentVariable name="PHPRC" value="C:\Program Files\iis express\PHP\v5.2" />
    </environmentVariables>
</application>

  2. Find following entry in hanlders section and comment this as well or delete.

    <add name="PHP52_via_FastCGI" path="*.php" verb="GET,HEAD,POST" modules="FastCgiModule" scriptProcessor="C:\Program Files (x86)\iis express\PHP\v5.2\php-cgi.exe" resourceType="Either" />

  3. By default Web Platform Installer installs PHP to %programfiles%\iis express\php. so open %programfiles%\iis express\php\ folder and delete the php version folder that you no longer need (don't forget to remove relavant entries from applicationhost.config as mentioned in step 1 and 2 above)

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