Send Emails from XAMPP lite on Windows

This information, like anything else, exists in little random pieces on Google, sometimes outdated. So here is how I was able to get Drupal to send emails from my localhost server using XAMPP lite.

Step 1: update php.ini, located at C:/xampplite/php/php.ini

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/smtp
;SMTP = localhost
; http://php.net/smtp-port
;smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/sendmail-from
;sendmail_from = postmaster@localhost

; For Unix only.  You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
; http://php.net/sendmail-path
;sendmail_path = "\"C:\xampplite\sendmail\sendmail.exe\" -t"
sendmail_path = "C:\xampplite\sendmail\sendmail.exe -t -i"

; Force the addition of the specified parameters to be passed as extra parameters
; to the sendmail binary. These parameters will always replace the value of
; the 5th parameter to mail(), even in safe mode.
;mail.force_extra_parameters =

; Add X-PHP-Originating-Script: that will include uid of the script followed by the filename
mail.add_x_header = Off

; Log all mail() calls including the full path of the script, line #, to address and headers
;mail.log = "C:\xampplite\apache\logs\php_mail.log"

Step 2: Update sendmail

• go to http://glob.com.au/sendmail/ and grab the latest sendmail zip file
• unzip to desktop and copy the files into your \xampp\sendmail folder replacing everything that was there.
• edit sendmail.ini (remember to change ‘myemail’ and ‘mypassword’):

smtp_server=smtp.gmail.com
smtp_port=465
smtp_ssl=auto
auth_username=myemail@gmail.com
auth_password=mypassword
force_sender=myemail@gmail.com
hostname=smtp.gmail.com

One word of caution: if you are using a firewall like me, you’ll need to give access to sendmail.exe.