New to PHP, need help getting it setup in Apache

[GrdLock]

So in my spare time I decided to try to learn PHP and MySQL. I downloaded some books and all.

 

I cannot get PHP to work with Apache to save my freakin life. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've tried the latest versions of Apache/PHP, and couldn't get those to work, so I tried slightly older versions, and still can't get it to work.

 

I've tried using PHP with the CGI setup, and as a module, and neither will work.

 

When I install PHP as a module, on my test .php file, all I get when I view it is a blank screen. Right-click and view source shows nothing at all, no HTML code, nothing.

 

When I install PHP with CGI, using PHP4/Apache2, the page returns "No input file specified." when I view it. When I was using PHP5/Apache2.2, I got an error something like "You do not have permission to /php/php.exe?index.php" or something along those lines.

 

I've put all the necessary stuff in Apache's conf file, I've setup C:\PHP in the Windows PATH, permissions to the PHP directory are setup correctly.

 

What am I doing wrong here??