Setting Up a Local Environment via XAMPP: Configuring PHP

PHP comes installed with a preset configuration. In local environments, I tend to set things a lot higher than I normally would in a production site simply because it is for me and for strenuous testing, auditing, developing, debugging, etc.

So navigate to the C:xamppphpphp.ini file and open within Notepad++.

The file will look like this initially.

Go to line 451, and make the following changes:
https://gist.github.com/9318470
This will allow you to do a bit more with the PHP instead of it timing out on you periodically.

And then on line 922, change upload_max_filesize to upload_max_filesize=100M
This will enable you to be able to upload large files to the WordPress Media area.

Then on line 1045, change the default timezone. For more information as to what value to place there, see http://php.net/date.timezone.
This obviously sets the server default timezone.

Now, there are other customizations you can make to the INI file, but these basic changes are all the essential ones.