There are some packages available on the 'Net that install Apache, MySQL and PHP for you, all in one go. They're compiled Windows Installers, so all you have to do is click a button a few times and it will take care of the rest for you.

These are generally not available for the latest versions of PHP/MySQL/Apache, but you don't really need the latest of the latest for a localhost server. I still use PHP 4.1.2 on my own computer, and Mysql 3.23.49 and Apache 1.23 or so. Works great. Of course, I manually installed these a while ago, but I've tried one of those Insta-install packages once and that worked fine, too.


Also, I find that if a hackmaker makes a hack and doesn't provide screenshots or a publicly-visible live demo, (s)he should really create a test-account for people to use, one perhaps that doesn't have any particular rights outside of viewing the board & the hack...