Install WordPress Locally on Your Computer Using XAMPP

WordPress is the most popular blogging tools available to create beautiful website or blog. One of the main reasons is that it is free and priceless at the same time. The availability of enormous themes and plugins on the net makes it more valuable and easy to use. To run it we need a web server that can support web applications and it might not be free to have it. However there is a simple way that we can run wordpress locally on any computer without the need for us to pay a cent.

There is a package from Apache Friends that supports various operating systems like Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Solaris which they called XAMPP. With this easy to use tool, we can run a web server on our computer and run websites locally. However, it may not come with domain name in the URL address. As it will run locally, it may start with http://localhost/<directory_name>/ . Keep that in mind.

This is a good way to test wordpress installation, demo, updating files, theme and templates development. As you are using it next, you will see the usefulness of this tool.

How we can do it? (This tutorial will cover xampp for windows)

• First, install XAMPP on your computer and do whatever basic necessary settings. (Refer on our previous post on how to install XAMPP)
• Then download WordPress latest installation zip or tar.gz package from wordpress.org.
  
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• After downloaded, extract it and you will have a folder named “wordpress”. Cut it and go to XAMPP webserver directory. Eg: C:\xampp\htdocs. Open the htdocs folder and paste it there. Rename it to your need, let say “testpress”.
  

  

• Now go into the “testpress” folder and find for wp-config-sample.php file. Open it with your favorite editor (eg: Dreamweaver or Notepad++) and find for these lines below.
  

  

• Change the value to your needs. Let say change it to this below:
  
• You need to know your database username and password. In this case let say it is “root” and “1234”. That is only what necessary and save the file to wp-config.php. (Make sure it is saved to php file, not text file). Database name is base on what database name you will create later.
• Now go to http://localhost/xampp/ and go to tools to find phpMyAdmin. Click it and you will be directed to phpMyAdmin admin page (sometimes it will ask for username and password first. Depends on how you set the XAMPP).
  
• There will be a field to create new database. This is where you can create database. Type “testpress” in this situation and click create. “testpress” database will be created.
  
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• Open browser and type http://localhost/testpress/ at the url address. Instantly you will get this first page of wordpress. Put whatever required like the site title, username, password, and email. Eg: Site title: TestPress, Username: tester, password:abc1234, email:abc1234@gmail.com. It is up to you on what to fill on this.
  

  

• Click “Install WordPress” and then click “Login”. You will get this page below. That means you already have WordPress installed locally on your computer! You can login to the admin page using username and password you given before.
  

  

• You can click <– Back to TestPress button at the top right to see the Homepage. Whatever you do now is up to you to make your website more useful and beautiful.
  

I believe this is quite simple and straight to the point procedures. Easy to understand as well. Try it! Enjoy!