Why does any .php page give me a 404 error on Server 2008 with IIS 7.0?

When I was getting this error message I noticed that I didn't even have php-cgi.exe file in the C:\Program Files\PHP directory.

The other helpful method I found was that if you are getting FastCGI errors, to try double clicking directly on the php-cgi.exe file and then look in the Windows Application logs for errors if it crashes. I got this from this comment from a PHP Bug report:

[2010-04-22 06:43 UTC] sejo at iteontech dot com

After debugging IIS and a bunch of other crazy things, this is what worked for me. I have PHP 5.3.2 on Windows 7 and IIS 7. Try to execute PHP-CGI.EXE (BY DOUBLECLICKING ON IT). See if you get any error messages/ pop-ups. I got a ton of them and it all boiled down on having a bunch of extensions turned on, but not being available in my ext folder. Clear the PHP.INI of those invalid extensions and the problem should go away.

Well, I'm not sure what I did, but somehow I fixed it. I removed the website and re-added it, then checked my FastCGI Mapping settings, everything looked just like before, but this time it works. I'd still like to know why I was getting the error if possible.

By default IIS will not serve any file for which it does not have a valid MIME Type mapping and will 404 the response

If the .php extension does not have a MIME type defined for it for the website that you're trying to run PHP then IIS will not serve the file even if there is a relevant handler for that file type.

Just checked the IIS 7 Manager on my server and there is no mapping for PHP by default in the MIME Types list, I suspect that if your website existed before you installed FastCGI it does not automatically add the mapping to existing websites whereas when you created the new website FastCGI was already installed.

I could of course be completely wrong about that last bit but the File extension to MIME Type mapping issue is a security feature of IIS - no mapping = no files served with that extension

My solution to this error had two parts:

1. (from @icc97's answer) -- double-click on php-cgi.exe in your PHP folder to make sure it can start up ok.
2. Turns out that my index.php file was really named index.php.htm (turn off "hide file extension names")

I dealt with a similar issue, all replies I could find on the web were of no help whatsoever. First off I assume you have tried running http://yourservernamehere/check.php and everything seems to come back correct. IF this is the case I would suggest checking in your php.ini file the setting under:

[Date] ; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions date.timezone =

Most likely it is blank like mine was, this generates a silly error with newer version of php and for whatever reason you will be dead in the water until you have a timezone specified (mine is America/Chicago).

I may be assuming a lot about your situation but it sounds very similar to mine and I spent several days frustratedly searching for an answer.

Is there any reason you aren't using the installer to do the work for you?

Also, can you confirm that the .php handler mapping is correctly set?

Path : *.php
State : Enabled
Path Type : File or Folder
Handler : FastCgiModule

I had this issue today but none of the fixes above worked for me. I turned on detailed error handling in IIS and discovered I was receiving a 404.7 error: 'The request filtering module is configured to deny the file extension'.

I went into the 'Request Filtering' menu within the IIS manager, added '.php' as an approved file type and this fixed the issue for me.

When I had this problem, it was because in php.ini, open_basedir was set but did not allow the folder where my PHP files were. Adding the folder to open_basedir fixed the problem.

I don't know why I was getting 404.0 errors. If open_basedir was not properly configured, I would expect error 403.2.