[eluser]bretticus[/eluser]
Okay, I was wondering so I installed PHP via the windows installer. I noticed a few things:
1. You need to install MySQL Server and Apache first.
2. You need to select the mysql extension from the Windows installer.
Even after installing php, you can run the installer again to make changes (add support for mysql, etc.) The installer just sets up php.ini for you with the defaults.