How to Install FreeScout on Windows 11

Prerequisites

Before installing FreeScout on your Windows 11 machine, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

PHP 7.4 or higher
MySQL 5.7 or higher
Composer
Web server (Apache or Nginx)
Git

Steps to Install FreeScout on Windows 11

Follow these simple steps to install FreeScout on your Windows 11 machine:

Open Command Prompt or PowerShell with administrator privileges.
Install Git by running the following command:
```
choco install git
```
Install Composer by running the following command:
```
choco install composer
```
Download and install the PHP MSI installer for Windows. You can get the installer from the official PHP website here.
Install the required PHP extensions by editing your php.ini file. Uncomment the following lines and save the file:
```
extension=bcmath
extension=imap
extension=mysqli
extension=opcache
```
Download and install MySQL. You can get the installer from the official MySQL website here.
Create a new database for FreeScout using the MySQL command-line interface:
```
mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE freescout;
```
Clone the FreeScout repository from Github by running the following command:
```
git clone https://github.com/freescout-helpdesk/freescout.git
```
Navigate to the FreeScout directory and install the required PHP dependencies by running the following command:
```
cd freescout
composer install
```
Copy the .env.example file to .env:
```
cp .env.example .env
```
Open the .env file and update the database credentials and other settings according to your environment:
```
DB_DATABASE=freescout
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=password
```
Generate a new application key by running the following command:
```
php artisan key:generate
```
Run the migration command to set up the required database tables:
```
php artisan migrate
```
Start the web server by running the following command:
```
php artisan serve
```
Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000. You should be able to access the FreeScout login page.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed FreeScout on your Windows 11 machine.