Install WordPress on XAMPP/WAMP Web Server

This tutorial assumes you have installed a local PHP/MySQL web server such as XAMPP and want to install WordPress. This guide is specific to WordPress, but these same concepts apply to other PHP web softwares. Lets get started!

If you don’t have a local web server follow the XAMPP install tutorial. I suggest XAMPP over WAMP although both work.

Database

Before we get ahead of ourselves lets start by making a MySQL database for WordPress to store it’s data in. Make sure your web server is started and head over to http://localhost/. Click on phpmyadmin. On the main page in the Create new database field, enter a name for your WordPress database (I went big and named mine ‘wordpress’) and click create.

You will need to know the username and password for your MySQL account. If you don’t know this information or haven’t set it up, read the Configuring section on the XAMPP setup guide.

We are done in the admin.

Download & Install

Head over and download the latest version of WordPress here.

Unzip the WordPress folder to your web root folder. For XAMPP this is C:\xampp\htdocs. For WAMP it is c:\wamp\www. Head over to http://localhost/wordpress.

Note: If you want to change the url of your WordPress install, simply rename the folder and access the corresponding url. I.E. if your WordPress files are stored in C:\xampp\htdocs\testsite then your url would be http://localhost/testsite.

Configure

You will be asked to create a config file. Create this file and continue installing.

The wizard will help you fill in the necessary config settings. Fill them in as follows:

• Database Name - The name of the database you created in the first step.
• User Name – Your MySQL username – most likely root.
• Password – Your MySQL password that you set when you set up XAMPP/WAMP
• Database Host – Leave at localhost
• Table Prefix – Leave at wp_

Click install and fill in the details for your WordPress install. Run through the last few steps and login to your new WordPress install!