I tried the installer first, hit a problem and went back to the manual install as recommended.
Decide which php.ini (Dist or recommended) file to use, rename (save your old one first as a reference). Then edit php.ini as follows :
- define default date timezone: date.timezone = “Australia/Sydney”
- enable mysql and any other extensions that you may need (not all of them)
Then check your system PATH variable is set correctly.
You may need to restart your apache server.
Voila, check old wordpress starts now, then upgrade your wordpress.