Enabling fileinfo extension on PHP running under Windows

On Windows, the fileinfo extension is usually already included with PHP—you normally just need to enable it in php.ini. Here is the straightforward way to do it.

1. Find your php.ini

Open a Command Prompt and run:

php --ini

You will see something like:

Loaded Configuration File: C:\php\php.ini

Open that php.ini file in a text editor (e.g., Notepad++ or Notepad).

2. Enable the extension

Search for the line:

;extension=fileinfo

Remove the semicolon ; so it becomes:

extension=fileinfo

Save the file.

3. Restart your web server

If you are using:

• XAMPP → restart Apache from the control panel
• WampServer → restart all services
• IIS → restart IIS

If you only use PHP from the command line, just close and reopen the terminal.

4. Verify it works

Run:

php -m

You should see:

fileinfo

✅ Quick test in PHP

Create test.php:

<?php

$finfo = new finfo(FILEINFO_MIME_TYPE);

echo $finfo->file("test.jpg");

?>

Run:

php test.php

It should output something like image/jpeg.