How to get threads working in PHP on Windows?

I want to run PHP Thread class code on Windows. I tried some manual installation guides like e.g. this one but they didn’t work. PHP cannot load the pthreads DLL even though the file exists at this location:

PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'php_pthreads.dll' (tried: C:xamppphpextphp_pthreads.dll (The specified module could not be found), C:xamppphpextphp_php_pthreads.dll.dll (The specified module could not be found)) in Unknown on line 0

I downloaded php_pthreads-3.1.6-7.0-ts-vc14-x64.zip. My PHP version is: PHP 8.1.6 (cli) (built: May 11 2022 08:55:59) (ZTS Visual C++ 2019 x64). Generally I’m still not entirely sure which pthread version to select since there are many choices here. Are any of them even going to work since they seem a bit outdated? My phpinfo says:

Can I maybe just use Windows threads since they are already available on my system?

After the pthreads installation, when I run my Thread class example code

<?php

class AsyncOperation extends Thread
{
    public function __construct($arg)
    {
        $this->arg = $arg;
    }

    public function run()
    {
        if ($this->arg) {
            printf("Hello %sn", $this->arg);
        }
    }
}

$thread = new AsyncOperation("World");
if ($thread->start())
    $thread->join();
?>

I still get the warning above and the following error:
PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class "Thread" not found

What am I doing wrong? Is there maybe a way to do it with less “manual” effort in e.g. 1 composer command or an easier way to get threading working?