How to Install Composer on Windows 11

Introduction

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. It helps you install and manage PHP packages from the command line without manually downloading and organizing library files.

This guide focuses only on installing Composer on Windows and confirming that the composer command works correctly.

PHP Must Already Be Installed

Composer requires PHP. Before starting, make sure PHP is already installed on your Windows system and that you know where the php.exe file is located.

Download Composer

STEP 01

Open the Composer website

Open your browser and go to the official Composer website.

https://getcomposer.org/

Composer package repository

Composer uses Packagist as its main public package repository, but package installation is outside the scope of this guide.

STEP 02

Open the download page

Click Download on the Composer website to open the Composer installer page.

STEP 03

Download Composer-Setup.exe

Download the Windows installer named Composer-Setup.exe.

Install Composer

STEP 04

Run the Composer installer

Open the Composer-Setup.exe file to launch the installation wizard.

STEP 05

Select your PHP executable

When the installer asks for the PHP executable path, browse to your PHP installation folder and select php.exe.

Common PHP executable path

If PHP was installed manually in a simple folder, php.exe may be located at C:\php\php.exe.

STEP 06

Skip proxy configuration

If you are not using a proxy server, leave the proxy settings empty and continue to the next step.

STEP 07

Complete the installation

Continue through the installer and click Install. Composer will be installed and the PATH environment variable should be configured automatically.

PATH is configured automatically

The Composer installer normally adds Composer to the Windows PATH environment variable so you can run composer from any directory.

Verify Composer

STEP 08

Open a new Command Prompt window

After the installation finishes, open a new Command Prompt window.

Restart existing terminals

If Command Prompt was already open before installing Composer, close it and open a new terminal window so Windows can load the updated PATH environment variable.

STEP 09

Run the composer command

Type composer and press Enter to verify that Composer is installed correctly.

composer

Expected Output

Composer version information and a list of available Composer commands should appear in the terminal.

Composer Installed Successfully

Composer is now installed on Windows and ready to use from Command Prompt.