A native Windows web-stack control panel written in Go. One 7 MB binary that downloads Apache, MariaDB, PHP, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, MinIO, Mailpit, Node.js, Python, Go, Java, and friends on demand — no installer bloat, no Docker, no WSL, no Electron.

• 11 services in the catalog — Apache, Nginx, MariaDB (as MySQL), PostgreSQL, Redis, PHP-FPM, phpMyAdmin, Adminer, pgweb, MinIO, Mailpit, RabbitMQ
• 4 language runtimes — Node.js LTS, Python (embeddable + auto-bootstrapped pip), Go, Eclipse Temurin JDK 21
• 17 framework scaffolders — Laravel, Laravel + Livewire, Symfony, CodeIgniter 4, WordPress, Next.js, Vite + React, Express, NestJS, AdonisJS, Flask, Django, FastAPI, Go net/http, Gin, Spring Boot, Static HTML
• Auto-vhost creation — writes to Windows hosts file + Apache vhosts.conf + Nginx sites/
• Reverse-proxy vhosts for Node/Python/Go/Java dev servers (Apache forwards / → 127.0.0.1:port)
• System tray with minimize-to-tray, close-to-tray, and auto-start on Windows boot
• Built-in text editor for service config files (no notepad.exe shell-out)
• "Add tools to PATH" — appends bin/* dirs to user PATH (HKCU registry, broadcasts WM_SETTINGCHANGE)
• Per-card action buttons (Start / Stop / Restart / Conf), real-time log viewer, download progress bar
• Process zombie sweep at startup — cleans stale httpd.exe / mysqld.exe from prior crashes
• Per-user install — no admin needed for the installer; the app elevates on demand only when writing the hosts file

16 service cards in a 4×4 grid, each with its own logo and Start/Stop/Restart/Conf buttons.

Pick a framework, type a name, click Create. Composer/npm/pip/go runs in the background, the vhost is registered, and the project is yours.

List of registered vhosts with an inline form. Domain split into name + extension dropdown so you can't accidentally hit HSTS-preloaded TLDs like .dev.

Multi-line text editor for httpd.conf, php.ini, my.ini, redis.conf, config.inc.php, the Windows hosts file, and config.json. No notepad shell-out, no external dependencies.

Path overview, runtime status (PHP / Composer / Node / Python / Java / Go), elevation status, and global actions including the "Restart as Administrator" relauncher.

Grab the latest installer from the Releases page:

goampp-setup-X.Y.Z.exe   ~5.4 MB

Installs to C:\goampp — the short path matches the XAMPP / Laragon convention and dodges MAX_PATH issues that bite deeply-nested project paths on Windows. The installer needs admin once (writing to the system drive root), but grants users-modify on every runtime subdirectory so goampp itself runs unelevated after install. Only the one-time install plus future hosts-file edits (for virtual hosts) hit UAC.

The installer creates empty bin/, downloads/, tmp/, logs/, conf/, and www/ directories — everything else gets fetched on first start.

1. Click any service card's Start button — GoAMPP downloads + extracts that service's binaries on the fly. First run installs ~12 MB for Apache, ~80 MB for MariaDB, etc.
2. Click "Start Stack" below the grid to boot the essential web stack (Apache + MariaDB + phpMyAdmin) in one go.
3. Open http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ — login as root with no password.
4. Switch to the Projects tab to scaffold a Laravel/Symfony/Express/Flask/Django/etc. project with auto-vhost.

Requires Go 1.21+ (64-bit).

git clone https://github.com/imtaqin/goampp
cd goampp
go build -ldflags="-H windowsgui -s -w" -trimpath -o goampp.exe .

Or use the helper batch file (sets GOARCH=amd64 for 32-bit Go installs):

build.bat

Output is a single 7 MB goampp.exe. Run it next to goampp.exe.manifest, logo.ico, and assets/icons/*.ico (all in the repo).

goampp/
├── main.go                 # entry point + WM_CREATE wiring
├── service.go              # process lifecycle (start/stop/log capture)
├── download.go             # service catalog + downloader/extractor
├── frameworks.go           # framework scaffolders (Laravel, Next.js, ...)
├── vhost.go                # hosts file + Apache/Nginx vhost writers
├── tray.go                 # system tray icon + popup menu
├── ui_tabs.go              # 5 pages (Services/Projects/Editor/Vhosts/Settings)
├── icons.go                # service logo loading via STM_SETICON
├── paint.go                # owner-drawn coloured buttons
├── pathenv.go              # "Add to PATH" + "Restart as Admin"
├── zombies.go              # PowerShell-based stale-process sweep
├── config.go               # config.json load/save
├── assets/icons/*.ico      # 17 service & framework logos (32×32)
├── icon/*.png              # source PNGs (run tools/makelogos to refresh)
├── tools/makeicon/         # one-shot PNG → ICO converter
└── tools/makelogos/        # bulk logo generator (icon/*.png → assets/icons/*.ico)

What's in bin/, downloads/, logs/, tmp/, conf/, and www/ is gitignored — those directories are populated at runtime.

The catalog in download.go keys each service by name to a DownloadSpec with the URL, install dir, top-level strip prefix, post-install hook, and check file. Click Start → spawn a goroutine → HTTP fetch → atomic rename → extract → run hook → start the process. Cached in downloads/ so reinstalls skip the network.

Apache's mod_proxy_fcgi has a 12-year-old Windows bug (Apache #55345) where it concatenates the upstream URL with the script's drive-letter path, producing fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000C:/... and failing DNS. GoAMPP sidesteps it entirely by using mod_cgi + mod_actions + ScriptAlias to invoke php-cgi.exe directly. Slower per request than FastCGI, infinitely more reliable on Windows.

Apache's winnt MPM forks worker children that survive when you kill the parent. cmd.Process.Kill() leaves zombies on port 80. The Stop button uses taskkill /F /T /PID (the /T flag walks the tree) so child processes get cleaned up too.

On launch, GoAMPP enumerates every process via PowerShell (Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.Path }), filters to anything whose image lives inside <goampp>/bin/, and taskkill /F /T's each one. Cleans up stale workers from prior crashes so the next Start doesn't hit "port already in use". Originally used wmic but Microsoft removed that from Win11 22H2+.

The Services view is a hand-built 4×3 grid of widget bundles, not a ListView. Each card holds an SS_ICON Static for the logo, three Statics for name/status/version, and four owner-drawn coloured Buttons for Start/Stop/Restart/Conf. Per-card buttons cut the click count in half compared to the "select row → click action" XAMPP pattern.

windigo's default Buttons render with the system theme (gray/white). GoAMPP overrides them with BS_OWNERDRAW style + a WM_DRAWITEM handler that paints the background with a cached HBRUSH (created via direct gdi32!CreateSolidBrush syscall — windigo doesn't expose it). Each button registers its colour scheme in a per-ctrl-ID map; the draw handler looks it up and fills accordingly. Green Start, red Stop, orange Restart, blue Conf, slate neutral.

The tray right-click menu is built with CreatePopupMenu + raw user32!AppendMenuW syscalls (windigo only exposes the verbose InsertMenuItem API that takes a MENUITEMINFO). Menu commands route through wnd.On().WmCommand(id, CMD_MENU, fn) rather than the generic Wm(WM_COMMAND, ...) handler — windigo's processLast() special-cases WM_COMMAND and only walks the cmds list, so generic interceptors are silently dropped.

Writing to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts requires admin. Click Restart as Administrator on the Settings page — GoAMPP ShellExecute("runas", goampp.exe) triggers a UAC prompt and the elevated instance takes over from the current one cleanly.

Either:

• IIS / Skype / World Wide Web Publishing Service is running. Stop them via services.msc or net stop w3svc.
• A previous GoAMPP-managed Apache crashed and left a worker zombie. The startup sweep should catch this — if it doesn't, run Restart Stack which kills zombies + cleans up + starts fresh.

Harmless. The post-install hook patches httpd.conf to set ServerName localhost:80 automatically; if you see this warning anyway, your httpd.conf is from an older install. Run Apache → Conf → edit ServerName in the built-in editor or reinstall Apache from the Services tab.

The data directory wasn't seeded. The post-install hook normally runs mariadb-install-db.exe automatically. If it didn't, delete bin/mysql/ and reinstall from the Services tab.

Issues and pull requests welcome at github.com/imtaqin/goampp.

If a download URL in download.go goes stale, file an issue with the service name and I'll bump the catalog. The service URLs use whatever upstream publishes (Apache Lounge for Apache, archive.mariadb.org for MariaDB, etc.) so they age out over time.

MIT. Service logos under assets/icons/ and icon/ are trademarks of their respective owners and used here purely for identification.