Installation instructions (Windows)

This page describes how to install XBMC Video Server on Windows systems. If you experience any problems, check out the FAQ at the bottom of this page before posting about it on the forums or creating an issue.

Please note that the latest versions of XAMPP don't support Windows XP and Windows 2003 anymore (in fact it's PHP 5.5 that doesn't support them)

Installing on Windows

1. Download the XAMPP installer from http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/ and run it
   • Uncheck all components except Server / Apache and Program Languages / PHP
   • Follow the instructions until the installation is complete (ignore any warnings). Don't open the XAMPP control panel just yet.
2. Download the Composer installer from http://getcomposer.org/download/ and run it
   • Browse to C:\xampp\php\php.exe when the installer asks for the path to php.exe
3. Download the msysgit installer from https://msysgit.github.io/ and run it
   • Use the default options on all screens except at Adjusting your PATH environment, there you must select Run Git from the Windows Command Prompt.
4. Reboot your computer, otherwise Windows won't find the "git" command when you write it in a command prompt.
5. Start the XAMPP Control Panel
   • Click the Config button and check Apache under Autostart of modules, then click Save
   • Start Apache by clicking the Start button in the middle of the window
6. While still in the XAMPP Control Panel, click Shell to launch a command prompt in the XAMPP directory. Then, run the following commands, one by one:

cd htdocs
git clone git://github.com/Jalle19/xbmc-video-server.git
cd xbmc-video-server
composer install
.\src\protected\yiic createinitialdatabase

Updating on Windows

Open the XAMPP Control Panel and click the Shell button to launch a command prompt in the XAMPP directory. Then, run the following commands one by one:

cd htdocs\xbmc-video-server
git pull
composer install
.\src\protected\yiic migrate --interactive=0

FAQ

Using a reverse proxy is very slow

Try changing the proxy address to the IP address of your server instead of the hostname, even if you're using localhost. Windows will use IPv6 by default for localhost connections so if the thing you're trying to access is not listening on IPv6 it will take many seconds before it gives up and falls back on IPv4.

I'm getting errors when starting Apache

Assuming you don't have a typo in any of the configuration files, this is usually because some other program on your computer is using port 80 (the default port for Apache). One such application is Skype. Try closing all other services and applications you have running and see if Apache starts, if so you can change the the port it listens on to something available.