Description
I am using PHP Desktop version [latest] on Windows to package a Laravel 11 / FilamentPHP application.
While PHP Desktop works, I've observed significant performance bottlenecks, especially with AJAX requests (like those from Livewire used by Filament). Request times are consistently high (e.g., over 1 second), with tools like Laravel Debugbar showing large portions of time spent in the "Booting" and "Application" phases of the framework lifecycle.
Based on the documentation and experimentation, the root cause appears to be PHP Desktop's default reliance on the standard CGI interface (configured via cgi_interpreter in settings.json).
Interestingly, I discovered a significant performance improvement (request times reduced by more than half) when I manually launch the included php/php-cgi.exe
When php-cgi.exe runs persistently in the background (effectively in FastCGI mode), the PHP Desktop application seems to communicate with this existing process instead of spawning new ones. This drastically reduces the framework bootstrapping overhead and leverages PHP Opcache effectively.
before:
after run php/php-cgi.exe:
How can I make phpdeskstop use Fast CGI mode by default?
What options do I have?