Drupal can be installed locally on a Windows machine as a local test version. Drupal works as expected on a WAMP(Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) platform, it is compatible with civicrm, clean URLs and there should not be any issues due to Windows OS as such.
Here's what is needed for it to work on a Windows system.
1. Install XAMPP for Windows from http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html [1]. It is very straightforward to install, with the install steps being clearly outlined on the site itself.
XAMPP Lite proved sufficient for our purposes, though you may want to go with the add-ons later based on individual requirements.
Setup time ~ Less than 1 hour.
2. Configure XAMPP to make it work for drupal by following the instructions here: http://drupal.org/node/161975 [2]. Two more important points are listed below.
3. Clean URLs - To enable clean URLs on a XAMPP install, open up xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf and find this line:
#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
and uncomment it by deleting the hash (#) so that it reads:
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
Restart Apache and test that clean URLs work on your site.
4. Windows Vista users only: On Windows Vista, with the added(annoying) security features, you do not have rights to edit the hosts (from step 2) file directly. So you need to do the following to edit it:
a. Go to "Start", search for "Notepad" or point your mouse to All Programs>>Accessories>>Notepad
b. Right click "Notepad" and select "Run as administrator" - This step is important or else Windows Vista will not allow you to save the file later.
c. Click "Continue" on the pop-up warning that appears and you get to Notepad.
d. Hit "Ctrl + O" to open a file or click on File>>Open from the top menu.
e. Browse to "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc" - unless you changed the default Windows install directory.
f. Change the drop down box from "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All Files (*.*)".
g. Select "hosts" and click "Open" or double-click on "hosts".
h. Make your changes as listed on step 2, save your changes and close Notepad.
Restart Apache and test to see if all works well.
Let us know if any steps need further clarification.
[3]