How to install Magento 2 on Windows

WinNMP - Nginx MariaDB Redis Php development stack for Windows

A lightweight, fast and stable server stack for developing php mysql applications on windows, based on the excellent webserver Nginx. A lighter alternative to XAMPP and WAMP.

How to install Magento 2 on Windows:

 This tutorial is getting old and might need critical updates.  If anyone is willing to write an update, we'll publish it.

1. Install WinNMP Stack

Download the latest installer. The installer produces a portable folder.

2. Create a new Magento Project

New Project

Open WinNMP Manager by clicking the taskbar or desktop icon, then click on New Project icon, choose a project name like MyMagento, hit Enter or click Save Project.
Check Enable Local Virtual Server
Save the project settings.

3. Download Magento

Download the Magento Archive
Extract files to WinNMP\WWW\MyMagento

4. Setup Nginx

Edit WinNMP\conf\domains.d\MyMagento.conf directly or in WinNMP Projects list > Project Setup > Edit Nginx Local Virtual Server Configuration File icon.
Keep only the first 2 directives ( listen and server_name ) and replace everything else with:

    server {
        #! listen       127.0.0.1:80;
        #! server_name  MyMagento.test;

        ## Magento Vars - replace **MyMagento** with your project name !!!!!!!!!
        set $MAGE_ROOT "c:/WinNMP/www/MyMagento";
        set $MAGE_MODE default; # or production or developer

        ## Access Restrictions
        allow       127.0.0.1;
        deny        all;

        root $MAGE_ROOT/pub; # locked

        index index.php;
        autoindex off;
        charset off;

        add_header 'X-Content-Type-Options' 'nosniff';
        add_header 'X-XSS-Protection' '1; mode=block';

        location /setup {
            root $MAGE_ROOT;
            fastcgi_read_timeout    18000s;
            location ~ ^/setup/index.php {
                include     nginx.fastcgi.conf;
                fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                fastcgi_pass    php_farm;
            }

            location ~ ^/setup/(?!pub/). {
                deny all;
            }

            location ~ ^/setup/pub/ {
                add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
            }
        }

        location /update {
            root $MAGE_ROOT;

            location ~ ^/update/index.php {
                include     nginx.fastcgi.conf;
                fastcgi_split_path_info ^(/update/index.php)(/.+)$;
                fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                fastcgi_param  PATH_INFO        $fastcgi_path_info;
                fastcgi_pass    php_farm;
            }

            # deny everything but index.php
            location ~ ^/update/(?!pub/). {
                deny all;
            }

            location ~ ^/update/pub/ {
                add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
            }
        }

        location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
        }

        location /pub {
            location ~ ^/pub/media/(downloadable|customer|import|theme_customization/.*\.xml) {
                deny all;
            }
            alias $MAGE_ROOT/pub;
            add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
        }

        location /static/ {
            if ($MAGE_MODE = "production") {
                expires max;
            }
            location ~* \.(ico|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|svg|js|css|swf|eot|ttf|otf|woff|woff2)$ {
                add_header Cache-Control "public";
                add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
                expires +1w;
                #expires    off;

                if (!-f $request_filename) {
                    rewrite ^/static/(.*)$ /static.php?resource=$1 last;
                    rewrite ^/static/version\d*/(.*)$ /static.php?resource=$1 last;
                }
            }
            location ~* \.(zip|gz|gzip|bz2|csv|xml)$ {
                add_header Cache-Control "no-store";
                add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
                expires    off;

                if (!-f $request_filename) {
                    rewrite ^/static/(.*)$ /static.php?resource=$1 last;
                    rewrite ^/static/version\d*/(.*)$ /static.php?resource=$1 last;
                }
            }
            if (!-f $request_filename) {
                rewrite ^/static/(.*)$ /static.php?resource=$1 last;
                rewrite ^/static/version\d*/(.*)$ /static.php?resource=$1 last;
            }
            add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
        }

        location /media/ {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /get.php?$args;

            location ~ ^/media/theme_customization/.*\.xml {
                deny all;
            }

            location ~* \.(ico|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|svg|js|css|swf|eot|ttf|otf|woff|woff2)$ {
                add_header Cache-Control "public";
                add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
                expires +1y;
                try_files $uri $uri/ /get.php?$args;
            }
            location ~* \.(zip|gz|gzip|bz2|csv|xml)$ {
                add_header Cache-Control "no-store";
                add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
                expires    off;
                try_files $uri $uri/ /get.php?$args;
            }
            add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
        }

        location /media/customer/ {
            deny all;
        }

        location /media/downloadable/ {
            deny all;
        }

        location /media/import/ {
            deny all;
        }

        location ~ cron\.php {
            deny all;
        }

        location ~ (index|get|static|report|404|503)\.php$ {
            try_files $uri =404;

            fastcgi_param  PHP_FLAG  "session.auto_start=off \n suhosin.session.cryptua=off";
            fastcgi_param  PHP_VALUE "memory_limit=256M \n max_execution_time=600";
            fastcgi_read_timeout 600s;
            fastcgi_connect_timeout 600s;
            fastcgi_param  MAGE_MODE $MAGE_MODE;

            include     nginx.fastcgi.conf;
            fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            fastcgi_pass    php_farm;
        }
    }

5. Setup PHP

Edit WinNMP\conf\php.ini

Comment out or delete:

open_basedir
disable_functions
disable_classes

Set:

max_execution_time = 18000;
always_populate_raw_post_data = -1
extension =  php_xsl.dll
ignore_user_abort = on
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1

7. Apply Changes

Kill All then restart WinNMP Manager
or Kill / Start Nginx and Php-Cgi

7. Magento Setup Wizard

Open up app/etc/di.xml and find the virtualType name="developerMaterialization" section. In that section you'll find an item name="view_preprocessed". Modify it by changing the contents from Magento\Framework\App\View\Asset\MaterializationStrategy\Symlink to Magento\Framework\App\View\Asset\MaterializationStrategy\Copy
Browse to http://MyMagento.test/setup
Optionally, if necesary, On Step 3: Web Configuration, click on Advanced Options and uncheck `Apache Rewrites - Use Apache Web Server Rewrites