php-cgi.exe The application was unable to start correctly

Run php-cgi.exe and hits a pop up dialog showing the following error message :

Application Error : The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)

c:\php7.1>php-cgi.exe -b 127.0.0.1:9123

Tested with PHP 7.1.10 on Windows 10

Solution

To run PHP on Windows, you need to install Redistributable for Visual Studio, refer to the official PHP download website, for example, if you downloaded the “PHP VC14 build” zip file, you need to install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015.

References

1. PHP For Windows