Getting PHP to work on my desktop

Sorry... wasn't sure where to put this. As you can probably tell, I'm new.

Is there a way to get PHP to work on my desktop for testing purposes? For example, I can write html in Textpad or some other editor and launch it in a browser to see what it looks like... but I can't do that with PHP documents. Is there a simple way to make that possible? Right now I have to upload everything I do in PHP to my server and test it there, and that gets kind of tiresome.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help.

 

u will need to install a server and then install php and mysql for running test

or just install xampp apachefriends.org/

and then php will work on ur comp

 

wamp is easy to install and use IMO.
http://www.en.wampserver.com/

 

u will need to install a server and then install php and mysql for running test . If you don't kown php+apache+mysql. you can use the pack . I use the appserv always.you can fild it with gooogle

 

Wamp worked very well, thanks.

 

Yeah Xampp is a great package. Good recommendation

 

i use xampp works like a charm

 

You can use xampp,wamp,phptriad,easyphp-there are so many packages available for both windows and linux