Manual:Installing MediaWiki on Windows Server 2012 R2

The goal of this guide is to give some a quick and easy way to install MediaWiki on a Windows Server 2012 R2 environment.

In this article we use the Internet Information Server (IIS) instead of an Apache Webserver.

Additionally erklärt dieser Guide wie weitere folgende und bereits wichtige Extensions dazu installiert werden.

Requirements
The following base items will be required: The following software will be required if you want to use the following extensions:
 * Administrative access to the Windows Server 2012 R2
 * MySQL Database (here)
 * 7-Zip (here)
 * Notepad++ (here)
 * Java SDK (here)
 * GNU DiffUtils (here)

Java SDK
Install the Java SDK (link above).

Add  as an environment variable. It should point to your installed JDK folder.

Internet Information Services (IIS)
To install IIS follow the steps below: To check your installation open http://localhost, it should bring up the IIS 8 splash page.
 * 1) Open Server Manager.
 * 2) Click "Add roles and features".
 * 3) Select "Roles".
 * 4) Select your server.
 * 5) Add "Webserver (IIS)" role.
 * 6) At role "Webserver (IIS)" include the following.
 * 7) Common HTTP-Features > HTTP Redirection
 * 8) Application Development > CGI

Set Default Document
Set Default Web Site to index.php
 * 1) Open the Internet Information Service (IIS) - Manager.
 * 2) Select the server name from the list.
 * 3) Double click on "Default Web Site" XXX
 * 4) Use Add in the Action pane and add index.php to the list. XXX

PHP
There are several ways to install and add PHP to your server.

Webplattform Installer
I suggest to use the Microsoft Webplatform Installer 5.0 to install PHP.

You will be prompted to download the installer as soon as you open the IIS-Manager.

You can search for your favorite PHP version and add it easy to your IIS after you finished the installation.

Be aware that PHP 7.x leads to some issues at php files of extensions.

In PHP 7.x references are no longer marked with  you have to remove the   in front of the passed parameter.

The best way to find these spots in the php files is to use Notepad.

If you enable the debug settings in your LocalSettings.php (after installing MediaWiki) you can use Notepad to search for the functions in the php files located in the folder of this extension.

Software for extensions stated above
Install the required software for the extensions stated above.

You don't have to install all of it, just the required software for the extensions you might want to use. Test your updated PATH environment variable using cmd.exe. Make sure you open cmd with higher privileges (Administrator)!

Just enter the name of the several .exe files and see if Windows finds it by default. If the several programs respond it is likely that MediaWiki and the extensions can find it and execute it.