For example using 7-Zip or native Windows extraction tool
3
Stop Apache
Open XAMPP and stop Apache. Alternatively you can stop the Apache service in services.msc
4
Replace PHP
Rename C:\xampp\php to C:\xampp\php-old
Move new extracted PHP version to C:\xampp\php
5
Copy old php.ini
Copy C:\xampp\php-old\php.ini to C:\xampp\php\php.ini
6
Compare php.ini-production
Compare C:\xampp\php\php.ini-production with C:\xampp\php\php.ini
Add lines from C:\xampp\php\php.ini-production which are not present in C:\xampp\php\php.ini
Some settings are deprecated in PHP 8.4 (for example: session.sid_length and session.sid_bits_per_character ). Warnings concerning deprecated settings are written to C:\xampp\apache\logs\error.log
7
Update Composer
Run:
composer self-update
8
Start Apache
Open XAMPP and start Apache. Alternatively you can start the Apache service in services.msc