Could not find PHP in path on Windows

[uchuu-me]

I see:
Language server phpactor:
from extension "PHP" version 0.4.10: Could not find PHP in path! PHP needs to be installed for running phpactor on Windows

C:\Users\User>php -v
PHP 8.3.13 (cli) (built: Oct 22 2024 21:07:34) (NTS Visual C++ 2019 x64)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.3.13, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Xdebug v3.4.0beta1, Copyright (c) 2002-2024, by Derick Rethans

C:\Users\User>where php
c:\Programs\php 8.3.13\php.exe

[charlesroper]

I got it to find Phpactor, but it seems Zed on Windows has some problems with finding stuff on the PATH.

First, I have PHP 8.5 installed via winget and it's on my PATH:

PS> winget list php
Name    Id          Version Source
-----------------------------------
PHP 8.5 PHP.PHP.8.5 8.5.4   winget

PS> (Get-Command php).Source
C:\Users\Charles\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WinGet\Packages\PHP.PHP.8.5_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe\php.exe

Yet Zed doesn't seem able to find it:

I have the same problem with the powershell-es language server - PowerShell is installed, yet Zed can't find it:

I eventually forced Zed to find Phpactor using these settings:

"lsp": {
  "phpactor": {
    "binary": {
      "path": "C:\\Users\\Charles\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\WinGet\\Packages\\PHP.PHP.8.5_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe\\php.exe",
      "arguments": [
        "C:\\Users\\Charles\\AppData\\Local\\Zed\\extensions\\work\\php\\phpactor-2025.12.21.1\\phpactor.phar",
        "language-server",
      ],
    },
  },
},

After all that, I discovered it doesn't work on Windows anyway:

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• PHP mbstring extension.
• Composer
• Linux or MacOS (Windows users will need to use WSL)

BUT, all that said, Intelephense does work: https://zed.dev/docs/languages/php#intelephense

I've added these notes here in case anyone else finds this issue.