CodeIgniter for someone totally new? - First Steps

[eluser]maadmac[/eluser]
Here's a thread about Windows editors:

Windoze

There's an even longer thread, like 12 pages, of people weighing on code editors that's around here somewhere...Personally I've not yet encountered a Wintel editor that I like, I've used Notepad++, Context, PSPad and a few others. They're all undesirable for one reason or another. Some people really like Aptana with the Eclipse module; I thought Aptana was a visual UI trainwreck (but then, I'm a dyed-in-wool Mac guy, so I'm a bit spoiled).

It all boils down to this: you need a local copy of Apache (with PHP installed), a local copy of MySQL and a text editor. You can install the servers yourself manually -- I've done it on Windows and it's a gigantic pain in the keister. You're much better off with an installer package like wamp or xampp (I prefer xampp over wamp, personally, but that's mainly because it installs a little tray icon that lets me manage the servers easily). Either is fine.