{"id":1391,"date":"2021-05-10T12:57:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T09:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2022-06-08T13:41:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T10:41:52","slug":"install-wordpress-on-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/install-wordpress-on-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Install WordPress on Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are some reasons why you should <\/span>build and test your website<\/b> locally.\u00a0 It enables you to test out themes, plugins, and files before your website goes live.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the major ways to <\/span>build a WordPress site<\/b> locally is to use an application called <\/span>XAMPP<\/b>. This article will walk you through the step-by-step process of installing WordPress on Windows using XAMPP.<\/span><\/p>\n

Install WordPress On Windows Using XAMPP<\/b><\/h2>\n

Step 1: Download and Install XAMPP locally<\/b><\/h3>\n

XAMPP <\/span>is an abbreviation for cross-platform, <\/span>Apache, MySQL, PHP<\/b>, and <\/span>Perl<\/b>. You can download <\/span>XAMPP <\/b>from a website named<\/span> Apache Friends<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

Select a compatible file version from the list of options and click the download button. The average size of a XAMPP file is about <\/span>150MB<\/b>, so this might take a <\/span>few minutes to download completely,<\/b> depending on your network connection.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

After downloading, run the file to <\/span>launch the XAMPP installer<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

Click on the <\/span>Next <\/b>button<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

To <\/span>install your WordPress website locally<\/b>, the required modules are <\/span>MySQL <\/b>and <\/span>phpMyAdmin.<\/b> Uncheck every other component and click the Next button<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

Select a folder to install XAMPP but just leave it at the default option if you are not sure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Click on the <\/span>Next <\/b>button.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

A new screen will pop up asking you to <\/span>install Bitnami for XAMPP<\/b>. Installing Bitnami is not necessary when installing WordPress locally, so you are to uncheck the box.<\/span><\/p>\n

Click on the <\/span>Next <\/b>button.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

It will request for your preferred language. Click on the <\/span>Next <\/b>button<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

The new screen reads that you are now ready to Install. Click on the <\/span>Next <\/b>button.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

The<\/span> installation process<\/b> might take a few minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

After installing, you have the option to launch the <\/span>XAMPP control panel<\/b><\/p>\n

Click on the <\/span>Finish <\/b>button<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

Step 2: Run the Apache and MySQL modules<\/b><\/h3>\n

For your WordPress to function locally, you would have to run two modules – Apache and MySQL, through the control panel.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Control panel, click on the <\/span>Start <\/b>button to launch both modules<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

After launching them, their status turns green, indicating that <\/span>they have started running<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

To test that your local server is working, go to your web browser and type in: <\/span>\u00a0http:\/\/localhost\/<\/b>. If your local server is working, it will display the window as seen below<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

Next is to install your <\/span>WordPress files<\/b><\/p>\n

Step 3: Install WordPress Files<\/b><\/h3>\n

To add WordPress files locally, go to<\/span> www.wordpress.org<\/b><\/a> and download the latest version of WordPress<\/span><\/p>\n

Go to the folder where you installed XAMPP on your <\/span>Windows <\/b>and search for the <\/span>htdocs folder.<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

Open the htdocs folder and create a new folder in it for the new site. You would want to give it a name that is easy to remember and locate. In this case, let\u2019s call ours <\/span>test site<\/i><\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

It is also important to note that the folder name given will be used to <\/span>access your site<\/b> when testing it in your web browser. Again, in this case, we can check our site using <\/span>http:\/\/localhost\/testsite<\/b> on our web browser.<\/span><\/p>\n

After creating the folder named test site, extract the <\/span>WordPress file <\/b>you recently downloaded into it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 4: Create a WordPress Database<\/b><\/h3>\n

Now, you would need to <\/span>create a database<\/b> for the WordPress you installed. You can do this using MySQL.<\/span><\/p>\n

Go to your <\/span>XAMPP <\/b>control panel and click the <\/span>Admin <\/b>button for the <\/span>MySQL option<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

This opens the phpMyAdmin window. Click on the Databases option on the top part of the window.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

Give your database a name. <\/span>It is also essential to also use a name that you can remember because you will need it in a minute!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

When creating a database locally, you don\u2019t need to create a username and password, unlike building your website live. Click on the <\/span>Create <\/b>button.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 5: Install your WordPress Locally<\/b><\/h3>\n

Revisit your site using the link: <\/span>http:\/\/localhost\/testsite<\/b>, this time you would see the WordPress installer<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

You would see the information that will be required during the installation process. Click on <\/span>Let\u2019s GO<\/b><\/p>\n

Fill in the required information. Your <\/span>database name<\/b> is the name of the database we created initially, <\/span>Username<\/b> is the root.<\/span><\/p>\n

Click on <\/span>Submit<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Install<\/p>\n

Next give your website a title, fill in your username and password. Click on <\/span>Install WordPress<\/b><\/p>\n

Now your WordPress was successfully installed, it is time to <\/span>log in<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can access your local WordPress site by going to <\/span>localhost\/testsite<\/b>, and WordPress admin by going to <\/span>localhost\/testsite\/wp-admin<\/b><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n

Installing WordPress on your Windows is quite straightforward and once you get a hang of it, you can go on to<\/span> test as many websites as build<\/b> before going live. We recommend the use of XAMPP because of its simplicity but feel free to try out other <\/span>local server applications.<\/b><\/p>\n

Have you installed WordPress on Windows using a different method<\/span><\/i>? Feel free to share with us. If you encountered any challenges while<\/span> installing WordPress using XAMPP<\/b>, please reach out to us too. We would be happy to help out.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are some reasons why you should build and test your website locally.\u00a0 It enables you to test out themes, plugins, and files before your website goes live.\u00a0 One of the major ways to build a WordPress site locally is to use an application called XAMPP. This article will walk you through the step-by-step process […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-web-hosting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4808,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions\/4808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}