XAMPP for windows

This entry may be a bit premature. I have only found the web site and not actually used it yet.

Like many people I have web space.
My hosting provider blackfoot.co.uk provide me with mysql databases, php et cetera.
This is good. However my skill and knowledge with PHP and mysql is not so good.
At worst I use other people's code blindly. I know enough to be able to read the documentation and change the variables (most of the time).
One of my thoughts has been to experiment a bit with php et cetera in an environment where it does not matter, i.e. a server that is not actually on the net. My "problem" has been getting round to jumping through the assorted hoops of installing things, especially when most of the machines I can play with are either windows or solaris and not linux. I have briefly looked at SAMP and not got round to doing much with it. I do have apache and perl running fine on assorted solaris boxes from 2.6 upwards (with solaris 10 it is a case of install the OS and they just need configuring but with 2.6 you need to build and/or install the packages).

I have heard about LAMP and WAMP distros and nearly got round to doing the LAMP install of Ubuntu but never quite made it.

Now I have found a website that has been around for years.
I may have mentioned in another post about how quick i am at finding things :).

XAMPP appears to be (not yet installed it myself yet) exactly what I am looking for. A really lazy way of setting things up on a windows (or linux or solaris) machine to play with.