Notes while configuring Apache, php and MySQL on Windows 7

notes from installing apache / php / mysql on Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium with Norton Internet Security

•  I used the msi installer packages to load the software. 
• First, I installed Apache and tested it to be sure it started okay and would present me with default html page.
• Next, I installed php and was naughty and told Php to load all extensions.... this caused me problems later, which were hard to find, so I took a break and installed MySQL.

•  MySQL kept giving me messages suggesting I open port 3306
• I opened the port on my router, but don't think this was necessary - still got the error message

• I solved this by going into Norton Internet Security ->Network Settings->Program Control

• I found MySQL and set Access = Allow
• I was now able to start the MySQL service

• I found Apache HTTP Server and set Access = Allow

I kept getting these errors when trying to start Apache with Php: (the errors were found in the Windows Event Viewer)

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin\httpd.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin\php5ts.dll

I spent the day googling and finally found a suggestion of running php from the command prompt:
ie: c:\PHP5\php.exe -v

this gave me a list of missing dlls (which corresponded to all the php extensions I had enabled, but had not installed)

Now I edited my php.ini file and commented out each of the problem dlls

tried to start Apache again and bingo! it works!