You can find more information at official PHP and MySQL websites.
CS-Cart runs on most server specific configurations ranging from dedicated servers to shared servers that utilize different PHP configurations such as register_globals. Although the software works well on Windows and Unix-like operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD, RedHat), we strongly recommend installing CS-Cart on Linux, FreeBSD or RedHat ones.
The main reasons for our recommendation are the stable work of CS-Cart on a Unix-like operating system (it is more secure and allows more flexible control of file and directory permissions, etc.) and other performance advantages.