Manual:Installing MediaWiki on Windows Server 2016

The goal of this guide is to give some a quick and easy way to install MediaWiki on a Windows Server 2016 environment.

Requirements
The following items will be required:
 * Administrative access to the Windows Server 2016 server
 * PHP non-thread safe zip (Available here.)
 * MySQL installer (The file mysql-[version]-winx64.msi should be available here.)
 * MariaDB can be used as an alternative (The file mariadb-[version]-winx64.msi should be available here.)
 * MediaWiki archive (The file mediawiki-[version].tar.gz should be available here.)
 * 7-Zip or your favorite decompression utility to extract MediaWiki
 * A Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio, the required version is noted on the PHP download page. (Available here.)

Internet Information Services (IIS)
To install IIS follow the steps below:
 * 1) Open Server Manager, select Roles.
 * 2) Add the Web Server role and include the following:
 * Common HTTP Features -> HTTP Redirection
 * Application Development -> CGI.
 * 1) Open Edge and access http://localhost, it should bring up the IIS10 splash page.

Set Default Document
Set default document to index.php.
 * 1) Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, select the server name from the list.
 * 2) Use Add in the Action pane and add index.php to the list.

Adding PHP as FastCGI application
Instructions from php.net, that page also contains a visual guide.
 * 1) Open Handle Mappings
 * 2) Select Add Module Mapping... in the Actions pane.
 * 3) Add *.php as Request path.
 * 4) Choose FastCgiModule as Module from the drop down list.
 * 5) Add the path to the php-cgi.exe file in the Executable field. (C:\PHP\php-cgi.exe in this example)
 * 6) Add PHP_via_FastCGI as name.
 * 7) Open the Request Restrictions menu and select File or folder.

PHP
To install PHP follow the steps below:
 * 1) Install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable.
 * 2) Extract the PHP zip into to a location of your choice. In this example C:\PHP is used.
 * 3) Create the php.ini file by opening the php.ini-production file and saving it as php.ini.
 * 4) Open your C:\PHP\php.ini file in Notepad and uncomment the values below by removing the semi colon symbol . The following recommendations are from php.net.
 * 5) cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 (Line 761)
 * 6) fastcgi.impersonate = 1 (Line 769)
 * 7) cgi.force_redirect = 0 (Line 741)
 * 8) fastcgi.logging = 0 (Line 773)
 * 9) extension=php_mysqli.dll (Line 787)
 * 10) extension=php_mbstring.dll (Line 876, required since 1.27)
 * 11) extension=php_curl.dll (Line 893, required since 1.28)
 * 12) In the same file, change the path for   to the location of the extension folder. (In this example: extension_dir = "c:\PHP\ext", on line 724)
 * 13) Edit permissions on the images directory of the MediaWiki installation and add IUSR with modify privileges.
 * 14) Edit permissions on the temp directory of windows (C:\Windows\Temp) and add IUSR with modify privileges.
 * 15) Create a file called C:\inetpub\wwwroot\phpinfo.php, include the lines below.
 * 16) Open Internet Explorer and access http://localhost/phpinfo.php, it should bring up a PHP information page.


 * Contents of file PHPInfo.php

Enable PHP Caching (Optional)

 * Currently not supported.

MySQL
To install MySQL follow the steps below:
 * 1) Launch the installer, select Server only.
 * 2) After the installer finishes installation you will be prompted to run the MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard.
 * 3) Select Server Machine, then click Next
 * 4) Confirm Enable TCP/IP Networking and Add firewall exception for this port are checked, then click Next.
 * 5) Enter in root password, then click Next.
 * 6) Confirm Install as Windows Service is checked, then click Next.

MariaDB
To install MariaDB follow the steps below:
 * 1) Launch the installer and continue to Default instance properties.
 * 2) Enter in root password, then click Next.

MediaWiki
To install MediaWiki follow the steps below:
 * 1) Extract the media wiki archive into C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mediawiki directory.
 * 2) If you have just one .tar file, extract that file into the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mediawiki directory.
 * 3) If you want MediaWiki to be the default website follow the optional instructions below.
 * 4) Configure MediaWiki by accessing the configuration URL.
 * 5) Follow guide for using the configuration script.  Ignore the GNU diff3 not found error.

Create specific IIS website for MediaWiki (Optional)
Configure MediaWiki as the default website for a host name or an IP address.
 * 1) Select a name for the web site.
 * 2) Rename the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mediawiki folder to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\[web site name].
 * 3) Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, open the server name from the list.
 * 4) Right click on Sites and choose Add Web Site....
 * 5) Enter the web site name in the Site Name field.
 * 6) Change the physical directory to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\[web site name].
 * 7) Add a host name for your website or select an IP address.
 * 8) Click OK to create the web site.

GNU diff3 Installation (Optional)
Install GNU diff3 files.
 * 1) Create directory GnuWin in C:\Program Files (x86).
 * 2) Navigate to DiffUtils website.
 * 3) Download the file diffutils-2.8.7-1-bin.zip.
 * 4) Extract to the C:\Temp directory.
 * 5) Copy the bin directory to C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin.
 * 6) Navigate to File website.
 * 7) Download the file file-5.03-bin.zip.
 * 8) Extract to the C:\Temp directory.
 * 9) Copy the bin directory to C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin.
 * 10) Update the LocalSettings.php located in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\[media wiki name].

Original LocalSettings.php

$wgDiff3 = "";
 * 1) Path to the GNU diff3 utility. Used for conflict resolution.

Updated LocalSettings.php

$wgDiff3 = "C:/Program Files (x86)/GnuWin/bin/diff3.exe"; $wgMimeDetectorCommand = "C:/Program Files (x86)/GnuWin/bin/file.exe -bi";
 * 1) Path to the GNU diff3 utility. Used for conflict resolution.
 * 1) Use external mime detector

Common Errors

 * No styling when installing MediaWiki: Set the permissions for the temp directory of windows (C:\Windows\Temp) and add IUSR with modify privileges.
 * IIS 500 Error code: Install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable.