WordPress, the most popular content management system can be used to create all kind of websites… from personal blogs to eCommerce to almost any types of websites… In order to run WordPress, you’ll need to install a webserver, a database server and PHP server scripting modules…

99% of the time WordPress will be installed on a Linux system, including Ubuntu with either the LAMP or LEMP stack… However, there are some open source projects today that are making it possible to install WordPress on Microsoft Windows desktops and servers…

One such project is XAMPP… XAMPP is a completely free, easy to install Apache distribution containing MariaDB, PHP, and Perl.

This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install WordPress with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP on Microsoft Windows 10 or Server computers…

To get Windows on Windows, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Download XAMPP Package

To get XAMPP installed on Windows, head over to Apache Friends website and download the Windows version

Step 2: Install XAMPP

After downloading the Windows version, you should be prompted install the package… You’ll need to install with Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl as shown in the image below… Complete the installation and continue to the next step…

Accept the default installation directory: C:\xampp

Step 3: Configure XAMPP

Now that the package is installed, open XAMPP and start up Apache and MySQL services as shown in the image below…

After starting Apache2 and MySQL, these servers should be running… to test whether Apache is running, open Internet Explorer on the host machine and type the URL below:

http://locahost

This should bring up Apache XAMPP default  page…

To validate that MariaDB is installed and functioning, open the Shell command prompt on the right of XAMPP Control Panel.. This should launch the command shell… then type the commands below:

mysql

This should you onto MariaDB database server..

To secure MariaDB database server, open the Shell command windows again, then type the commands below…

perl\bin\perl.exe mysql\bin\mysql_secure_installation.pl

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

• Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
• Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
• New password: Enter password
• Re-enter new password: Repeat password
• Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
• Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
• Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
• Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Step 4: Create WordPress Database

While still in the Shell command windows, type the commands below to logon to MariaDB database server… type the password you enter above when prompted…

mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called wpdb

CREATE DATABASE wpdb;

Create a database user called wpuser with new password

CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON wpdb.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 5: Download WordPress Content

Now that WordPress database has been created, go and download WordPress content from its download page.

After downloading the WordPress file, extract it into the C:\xampp\htdocs

You can delete all the files and folders in there and extract WordPress content that that folder… the htdocs should look like this:

When done, open Internet Explorer and type

http://localhost

This time you should see WordPress default setup page..

Type in the database connection info and continue

Create WordPress admin account and continue

After installing, logon to WordPress admin dashboard…

~Enjoy!

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