[eluser]jedd[/eluser]
FWIW ...
I run Debian GNU/Linux. (For the three people that didn't already know.) This means my workstation *is* my web server and my database server (and for that matter, DNS and SMTP, etc). (I do actually have a real server, but it's in a different country - I wasn't allowed to drag multiple tower cases around the planet, more's the pity. But I digress.)
This means that my projects - the collection of files that are visible to the web server - are in my home directory (under ~/public_html). So as soon as I save a file from my editor or IDE, I alt-tab into the browser and hit ctrl-r to refresh the page. Nothing needs to get uploaded anywhere, so it's insanely fast .. and I'm astounded that people could choose to work with a slower and/or more convoluted work-flow.
If I was forced to use a feeble OS, I'd become a gardener. For people who don't find horticulture as appealing as I do, I'd suggest they install a virtual machine and run up a 'server' in there. I'd say Debian, because it installs small, it's rock solid and you don't want a GUI forced upon you, and the stable release requires precious little in the way of feeding and maintenance, but some of those benefits also apply to its various progeny (ha ha) such as (k)ubuntu.
So, this would mean downloading the free version of VirtualBox (OSE). And then grabbing a Debian netinst CD (110MB or less iso image) and then installing that in a virtualbox machine. Probably pulling in another 200MB of stuff (apache, php, mysql, git, samba and so on - all very easy to install). I'd then use samba inside that VM to present my home directory, or even /var/www , back to my Windows OS - and map a drive letter to same in my Windows environment. Subsequently all project activity would occur directly to that folder, making it immediately visible to the virtual machine's web server. It means I could keep the VBox application minimised pretty much permanently and my 'flow' would be fairly seamless. Also means I could pick up my VM and drop it onto my laptop if I wanted to take it with me, or for backups, etc.
