Installing PHP 5.5.6: Can't start php-cgi.exe - MSVCR110.dll is missing

Question

I'm trying to update from PHP 5.3 to PHP 5.5 after downloading the last version from here and I'm having this error:

Can't start php-cgi.exe - MSVCR110.dll is missing

I've read that I need to install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012. Is that right?

Can't I just download the .dll file? Why should I install VS just to work with PHP?

Thanks.

Solution

Can't I just download the .dll file?

No this is not going to work. You need to install the entire C++ Redistributable package.

(Even if just dropping that one dll into the app directory or into System32 did technically work, I'd still recommend installing the Redistributable package because it's easier to account for what is installed on the computer that way, etc.)

Why should I install VS just to work with PHP?

You're not installing Visual Studio. You're just installing a small package that includes support binaries needed to run applications that were built with Visual Studio.