To run a simple PHP app on users' desktop, I need a light, installer-free, portable www server for Windows that I can just stick into a ZIP file with the minimum files needed to run PHP (php-cgi.exe, php.ini, php5ts.dll, php_pdo_sqlite.dll), so the user only has to unzip the files into a directory, double-click the www EXE, and have a working PHP site.
I liked sHttpd.exe because it was a GUI Windows app which minimized itself in the icon bar, but its shttpd.conf requires hard-coding the full path to the doc root as well as the path to the PHP interpreter:
;BAD document_root .\
document_root C:\www
;BAD cgi_interpreter .\php-cgi.exe
cgi_interpreter C:\www\php-cgi.exe
Since it was renamed to Mongoose, sHttpd/mongoose.exe is now available either as a command-line version (mongoose.exe) which requires telling the user to hit Run > cmd and cd to the directory, or it requires running an installer (mongoose-2.8.install.exe).
Does someone know of a 1) light web server that 2) wouldn't require hard-coding the path to the docroot + PHP interpreter, 3) could run by just double-clicking on the www icon in a directory, and 4) minimize itself to the icon bar?
Thank you.