NEED HELP WITH PHP 5.0.4 beta 3

[mountainboarder]

ok, i need some serious help
i tried downloading php 5.0.4 beta 3 from www.php.net/downloads on to my windows xp comp
i used the zip file so i could manually install ( i need to use php-cli)
so the zip file dowloads to my desktop
the next step it says to extract all files in zip file to C:\php
dont know what it means by extract (first time installing a programming language) so i jus click and drag to the C:\php.
next i take the recommended php.ini file and rename it to php.ini.
it drops the ini and is saved as php in my C:\windows dir. but it says its the php config file and i can acess it and everything. Thats all the steps it says in the readme and on the online manual. so, i double click on php.exe to run the php-cli. Now the book i got (php5 for dummies) says to type the following into the command line with nothing else:

php -v

space and all. I type it, and hit enter. nothing happens, just a new line. did i do something wrong? the book says it should display the php version info if i installed correctly? is there some syntax i forgot? any help would be GREAT.

Thanks,
mountainboarder459

[Doug_G]

Did you add c:\php to your path? That's all I had to do to get the cli to work on XP. There are instructions in the install document.

Then instead of double-clicking php.exe, try opening a command prompt window, and then type in php -v

On my XP that nicely returns the installed php version.