Local website install - what apps do you guys use?

[mk1200]

I've been installing everything on my live site for a few years now. I think it's time I use something like WAMP to test out the mods, etc before throwing them on the server.

What apps are best for this? When you've modded a bunch of different files that are all over the place, do you have to keep track and upload the specific files? It sounds tedious, but compared to what I've been doing manually with FileZilla it would probably be easier for me. I'm imagining some kind of synchronize feature that would keep both directories up to date.

[Kevin]

For a local web server i have tried XAMPP - it seems to be pretty good.
As a synchronizing tool i would suggest SyncBack (there is a freeware version available). I use it at home too, to synchronize my local data with my NAS. It can synchronize via FTP too. A very handy tool.

But to test mods and installations, i simply use a subdomain, like area51.domain.com (you may lock it from public with a .htaccess). So i can test everything in a real server environment. But a good configured XAMPP would nearly do the same job.

[mk1200]

I didn't think of a sub domain. What rule do you add to .htaccess to block everything from seeing it?

[Kevin]

Just a simple authentication - username + password.

[japagun]

I@, doing everything with XAMPP and after install and run everything that i want, i upload all include files and DB with FTP client and mysqldumper