Xampp does not have an inbuilt upgrade mechanism and there does not appear to be any official instructions on how to upgrade your Xampp install in full or just certain aspects such as PHP.
My xampp location is always at:
D:\xampp
- I put it on the D: drive because the amount of files that are created and this made it easier to defrag and keeps it away from my neat C: drive.
Full Upgrade
These instructions will show you how to upgrade your Xampp installation in full and assumes you have used the portable version. I never use the installer.
- Backup the whole xampp folder
- Export the Databases - using one of the options below:
These processes will wipe any date in the target databases
- Copy and Paste
- This requires xampp to be shutdown cleanly.
- This will not work if the source is MySQL and the target is MariaDB etc... and perhaps if the version of the DB are too different.
- Nothing needs to be done at this point
- Command Line
- Dump all databases with the command line.
- This does not suffer from timeouts
- Run one of these commands:
From the xampp shell: mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases > all-db-dump.sql From the command line: D:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases > all-db-dump.sql NB: These can be used for doing a backup of you databases
- phpMyAdmin
- This requires some modification to your PHP and phpMyAdmin settings to work
- See How to upgrade XAMPP in Windows? Complete Solution. | by Asif Rahaman | Medium
- Copy and Paste
- Uninstall xampp as a service (if enabled)
- Shutdown xampp
- Rename the xampp folder
From: D:\xampp\htdocs To: D:\old-xampp\htdocs
- Download the new portable/zip/7z version of xampp
- from ApacheFriends (SourceForge)
- extract it to where your old installation was and renaming the folder as required.
D:\xampp
- Inside the D:\xampp\htdocs folder there are some xampp only files, just delete them or move them into their own folder just in-case you need them later (they are always in the downloaded file)
- Run the setup batch file
D:\websites\setup_xampp.bat
- Import the databases - use the method you did to export them
- Copy and Paste (this works)
- Make sure that xampp is not running
- Delete the new database files
D:\xampp\mysql\data
- Copy the old database files
From: D:\old-xampp\mysql\data To: D:\xampp\mysql\data
- Start the Xampp control panel
- Start Apache and MySQL
- Run the 'Xampp Shell' (by clicking the button in the control panel)
- Run the command and wait. It might not be quick.
mysql_upgrade
- Command Line
- Import all databases with the command line.
- This does not suffer from timeouts
- Run one of these commands:
From the xampp shell: mysql -u root -p < all-db-dump.sql From the command line: D:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysql -u root -p < D:\all-db-dump.sql NB: These can be used for restoring a backup of you databases
- phpMyAdmin
- Copy and Paste (this works)
- Copy/move all of your website files from the old location to your new xampp folder
From: D:\old-xampp\htdocs To: D:\xampp\htdocs
- Copy my libraries folder and update the libraries (this is only for me)
From D:\xampp\libraries To: D:\xampp\libraries
- tsmarty2c.php GitHub - Gettext plugin enabling internationalization in Smarty Package files.
- gettext - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation - msgcat.exe and msgmerge.exe, (64-bit?? Static)
- These files are not used by xampp but for me and my software development.
- Exit Xampp and make sure it is not running
- Compare/merge your config files (as required)
D:\xampp\php\php.ini D:\xampp\mysql\bin\my.ini D:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php D:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf D:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-ssl.conf D:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-xampp.conf D:\xampp\apache\conf\extrahttpd-vhosts.conf D:\xampp\xampp-control.ini
- Additional PHP extensions - Updated versions will probably be required, they are located here:
D:\xampp\php\ext
- Ioncube
- Thread Safe and 64 Bit
- Loader Download | ionCube - Secure and license your PHP scripts with the ionCube PHP Encoder 11.0. Secure valuable code with bytecode compilation, encryption and licensing capabilities.
- Xdebug: Downloads - Xdebug: A powerful debugger for PHP
- Xampp 7.4 (64 bit)
- Xdebug v2.8.1 Thread Safe 64 Bit
- eg: php_xdebug-2.8.1-7.4-vc15-x86_64.dll
- The file has been renamed.
- There is a new 3.x series of xdebug that uses slightly different code in the php.ini but this can be found in the xdebug section of netbeans
- An example file name for the required version in this series is: php_xdebug-3.1.5-7.4-vc15-x86_64.dll
- I have not used v3.x yet but I am sure it will work fine with the right calling code.
- Naming Explained
- x86_64 = 64 Bit
- nts = Non thread Safe
- lack of nts = Thread Safe
- TS (on download button) = Thread safe
- Xampp 7.4 (64 bit)
- Ioncube
- Set Notepad++ as the default text editor
C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
- Enable Autostart of the Apache and MySQL modules
- Set my folder icons so i can see things easily
D:\xampp D:\xampp\htdocs D:\xampp\libraries
- Put a text file called version.txt in the xampp root folder showing the version installed. This can be useful if things go wrong.
- If you have anything else like SSL certs installed you will need to figure that out yourself.
- Final Things
- make sure PHPMyadmin default collation has been set to your preferred option (mine is utf8mb4_unicode_ci)
- Apply the phpMyAdmin pmahomme template fix
- Restart Xampp
Keep your old xampp files for awhile to make sure you have not missed anything
Links
- Full Upgrade Tutorials
- How to upgrade XAMPP in Windows? Complete Solution. | by Asif Rahaman | Medium
- I had to write this article cause I couldn’t find any complete solution to help people out with updating XAMPP in Windows. Well, finally here is an easy to understand, step by step guide to upgrade XAMPP that actually works. Kudos!
- Covers both the command line and phpMyAdmin options.
- How to update XAMPP for Windows - Update your XAMPP (for Windows) to the latest version with just a few simple steps
- Upgrade XAMPP the Clean Way | Thorsten Frommen - So you want to upgrade XAMPP. Instead of installing the new version on top of the current one, though, here’s what to do to get a fresh and clean install.
- How to Update XAMPP in Windows - LibreTips - XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start. XAMPP is an acronym, which stand for: X (to be read as "cross", meaning cross-platform) Apache MySQL PHP Perl You can also install them separately and configure them. XAMPP puts all this and more together in a single package which makes it easier to deploy it. Now How to Update XAMPP in Windows without loosing your existing sites and databases.
- How to Update XAMPP to the latest version - Here is how to update XAMPP to the latest version using a basic phpMyAdmin method
- How to Update XAMPP for WordPress & Not Lose Anything - WPMU DEV - Since there's no official documentation to walk you through the process, we've taken it on ourselves to figure out how to do it.
- Upgrading XAMPP - MoodleDocs
- How to copy xampp my sql data from one pc to another pc? | YouTube - This is not a full tutorial and I did not just move individual files, I moved the whole /data/ folder and everything worked.
- How to upgrade XAMPP in Windows? Complete Solution. | by Asif Rahaman | Medium
- Update Individual Services
- MySQL
- How to upgrade MySQL to MariaDB in XAMPP in 5 minutes on Windows – Mike's Draft Article Bin - Here are the steps I used to to upgrad MySQL to MariaDB in XAMPP on Windows in about 5 minutes. After completing this process, MariaDB will look and work just like MySQL.
- Mini Guide: How to Import an SQL File in MySQL - So you already have your backup and decided to restore this on your MySQL database? In this article, we will tackle how to import SQL files in MySQL using a couple of methods.
- PHP
- Upgrading PHP in XAMPP for Windows? - Stack Overflow - How to update XAMPP to PHP 8 properly
- Update PHP in XAMPP and Composer in 1 minute (2022) - Coder Champ - A tutorial on how to update PHP in xampp and composer in less than 1 minute. A step-by-step guide with screenshots.
- How to upgrade Xampp from php 7 to 8 in windows 10 | wecode101 - How to upgrade Xampp from php 7 to php 8 in windows 10
- How To Update PHP Version In XAMPP On Windows | Tutorials24x7 - It provides all the steps required to update and upgrade the most recent release of PHP in XAMPP on Windows 10.
- How to Update PHP Version in XAMPP for Windows - Step-by-Step Guide - How to Update PHP Version in XAMPP for Windows - Step-by-Step Guide,How to Update PHP Version in XAMPP,for Windows
- phpMyAdmin
- How to upgrade phpMyAdmin in XAMPP to latest? - Stack Overflow - How to upgrade phpMyAdmin in XAMPP to latest, without affecting the database, settings, and files.
- How to Update phpMyAdmin - OSTraining - One of our members asked us how to update their phpMyAdmin version. They were running it under Windows/XAMPP.
- OpenSSL
- Heartbleed OpenSSL Bug - This shows you how to update OpenSSL.
- OpenSSL Downloads (Official)
- Binaries - OpenSSLWiki - Some people have offered to provide OpenSSL binary distributions for selected operating systems.
- OpenSSL Windows Binaries - Unnofficial repo of binaries.
- MySQL
- Misc
- mysql_upgrade - MariaDB Knowledge Base - This is a tool that checks and updates your tables to the latest version.
- TS = Thread Safe
- VC = Visual C++
- eg: MSVC15 (Visual C++ 2017)