Creating a local WordPress site is always a good idea. Whether you’re new to WordPress or ready to build a new website, a local WordPress install is the perfect place to play around, try out various themes and plugins, and learn all about the world’s most popular CMS. So, in this article, we are going to show you how to install WordPress locally on your Windows operating system using the open source XAMPP development environment.
Before you begin, be aware that a local WordPress site will only be visible on the computer you install it on. A local WordPress installation is not public like a live site. Instead, only you will be able to access it, which is exactly why it’s so handy for learning WordPress and trying out its various features without fear of making a mistake or creating something less than perfect.
Now that we’ve said that, let’s see exactly how to install XAMPP and configure WordPress locally.
Installing XAMPP on a Windows computer
The first step is to download XAMPP and install it on your computer. To do this, simply go to the Apache Friends website and click on the “XAMPP for Windows” connect.
Once the download is complete, you will need to run the newly downloaded file for the XAMPP installer to launch.
If you have an antivirus program running, you may receive a pop-up message like this:
Just click Yes and continue the installation.
You may also receive a User Account Control (UAC) message. If you do, click Okay Carry on.
Once you have read all the pre-installation messages and warnings, you should see the following prompt to start the installation process:
Click on Next.
The next screen should allow you to choose the components to install. To use WordPress with XAMPP, with the required components, you will need to choose:
Any other component is optional. After selecting the desired components, click Next.
Now select the folder where you want to install XAMPP. You can create or use an existing folder in the C: directory. We will leave the default path, which we also recommend you do.
For the purpose of this article, in the next screen, we will uncheck the “Learn more about Bitnami for XAMPP” option because we will be installing WordPress manually and not using the Bitnami program. Once you have unchecked this option, click on Next.
XAMPP will now be ready to install all the files you previously specified.
By clicking Next once again, the installation process will begin. Please be patient as this may take a few minutes depending on how many packages you have chosen to install.
Once the installation is complete, you can immediately start the XAMPP Control Panel by leaving the ” Do you want to start Control Panel now? ” check box selected and clicking To finish. If you need to start XAMPP differently for some reason, you can navigate to the XAMPP folder in your chosen installation directory and open the “XAMPP Control Panel” file.
When the Control Panel first opens, it prompts you to choose your preferred language. You can choose between English and German. Once you have selected your preference, click the to safeguard button.
You should now see the XAMPP Control Panel screen.
To check if everything is working properly, you can click on the start buttons for Apache and MySQL. If everything is configured correctly, both components should work without any problems. However, if they don’t start, there may be a problem with a program like Skype or something similar that uses the same ports as the XAMPP modules. In this case, you must close the conflicting applications and restart XAMPP.
advice. We can give you very useful tips on how to modify your PHP resources on XAMPP and free up more power on your local server. This is necessary especially when you install a premium theme on your local installation. First of all, when you enable XAMPP, you need to click on the Configuration button for apache server and choose to open the php.ini file from the drop-down list.
After that, in your default text editor, you will see all relevant settings for PHP resources in this file. All you need to do is change the following resources to the values shown:
max_execution_time=300 memory_limit=128M upload_max_filesize=128M post_max_size=256M max_input_vars=5000
When you add the new values, just save the changes and restart your XAMPP by stopping Apache and MySQL and restarting them.
Once all components are working properly, open your favorite browser and visit http://localhost.
Downloading WordPress Files
Now it’s time to add WordPress to the localhost website we just created. To do this, you must first download the latest version of WordPress from official site.
Once the download is complete, you will need to navigate to the folder where you installed XAMPP (in our case, it was the default installation path – C:xampp). From there, you need to find and open the htdocs case:
In htdocs, create a WordPress folder for your site. The name of this folder will become the subname used to access your WordPress site. For example, if you name the folder newsite, you will access your site by going to http://localhost/newsite in your favorite browser.
Once you’ve created the folder, open it and extract the WordPress.zip file you downloaded earlier.
Create a database for WordPress
Next, you need to create a MySQL database for your local WordPress site. To do this, launch phpMyAdmin from your XAMPP control panel by clicking on the Administrator button for MySQL component:
The phpMyAdmin browser page will open in your default browser. Here, just click on the New link to create a database for your WordPress site.
Enter a name for your database and in the second field choose the Snack option. Click now To create. You can name your database whatever you like – remember the name you chose, as you will need it in future steps.
Once all this is done, you need to restart the simulated web server. To do this, go to the XAMPP Control Panel and press the button Stop button for Apache and MySQL. Then press the Start button again for the changes to take effect.
Install WordPress locally
Now that you’ve installed XAMPP, copied the WordPress files, and created a database, navigate to http://localhost/newsite in your favorite browser should display the WordPress installation wizard.
Choose the language you want to use and press To continue.
The next screen will ask you to recall the information about the database you previously created. You can go to the next part of the configuration by clicking on the button Let’s go! button.
Here you need to enter the following information accurately and then click on TP submit:
After that, you should see the welcome screen for the famous five-minute WordPress installation process.
Fill in the fields with your site details, such as your site title, email address, etc. When you’re done, click “Install WordPress.”
Congratulations! You are now ready to work with XAMPP and WordPress locally to develop your site. We hope this tutorial will prove useful if you also need to install WordPress on XAMPP in the future.
