title: Upgrade PHP 5.5.x to 5.6.11 on windows 7
body: <p>I'm trying to upgrade my existing PHP <code>5.5.x</code> to <code>5.6.11</code> on windows 7 manually. I'm not interested in XAMPP for now. PHP <code>5.5.x</code> is currently installed and works fine locally on my machine i.e. <code>http://localhost</code> </p>
  
  <p>I grabbed a copy of <code>php-5.6.11-Win32-VC11-x86</code> from <a href="http://windows.php.net/download/" rel="nofollow">http://windows.php.net/download/</a> un-packed the windows binaries and put them where my current ones are e.g. <code>C:\php</code></p>
  
  <p>I use my current <code>.ini</code> file for all intents and purposes and copy that across also. It should now be a simple case of restarting the server with 
  my upgrade successful - only the server fails to start with 'The requested operation has failed!' and no errors reported in my Apache logs?</p>
  
  <p>Nothing has changed in my <code>httpd.conf</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2_4.dll"
  AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php
  # configure the path to php.ini
  PHPIniDir "C:/php"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What's strange is when I go to the terminal</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ php -v
  PHP 5.6.11 (cli) (built: Jul  9 2015 20:55:40)
  Copyright (c) 1997-2015 The PHP Group
  Zend Engine v2.6.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2015 Zend Technologies
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So it appears that <code>5.6.11</code> IS installed, indeed <code>$ php -h</code> reveals a host of information but Apache fails to start with no clues?</p>
  
  <p>How do I complete the upgrade?</p>