In old days, to set up your local PHP environment, you need to one-by-one install Apache web server, MySQL database, and PHP. Plus you have to manually adjust a lot of settings. It might take you, anywhere from 1 day to 1 week (or never), to finish the installation and configuration. Fortunately, there is a better to do it now, by using an automatic tool called XAMPP.
The following simple video tutorial will show you exactly how to install your local PHP environment using XAMPP.