- install git for windows
- install Visual Studio 2012 or higher, any edition
- make sure you have Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 x86 or x64 installed, the latest update as of 14.7.2013 can be found here
- download php 5.5 source code
- download latest php sdk binary tools from here
- download deps for php 5.5 vc11(either x64 or x86, depending on which flavor you're going to compile) from the same location
- create a folder X:\compilation (X is drive letter)