How do I change the default path of PHP in XAMPP?

php apache configuration xampp httpd.conf

Download your desired version of the PHP thread-safe binary (zipped) from http://windows.php.net/download/.
Unzip the downloaded version of the PHP in a separate directory. Please make sure that your new php directory's name is not "PHP". (For example, use php54 for PHP 5.4)
Copy the new PHP directory into your XAMPP directory. (DO NOT overwrite your existing php directory!)
Now go to your xampp/apache/conf/extra directory. Make a backup of, then open the httpd-xampp.conf file.
Change the following variables/directives:
PHPINIDir to be [your xampp folder]/[new version of PHP]
LoadModule to be [your xampp folder]/[new version of PHP]/php5apache2_2.dll
Save the httpd-xampp.conf file. Restart your XAMPP apache server. If your server get restarted successfully, then your server's PHP version was upgraded. You can check the status of your PHP version by using the URL [localhost][:port]/xampp/phpinfo.php.

If you are still having issues, try this as well:

Change the LoadFile "[xammp folder]/php/php5ts.dll" directive to LoadFile "[xampp folder]/php54/php5ts.dll"

CodeHunter