Installing WordPress locally (on your computer) will save you a lot of time if you regularly test or develop themes or WordPress plugins.

Not only will your locally created websites run much faster than they would on the internet, but you will also have a much safer testing environment away from a website.

Having a localhost environment has dramatically improved my workflow and is even an important part of my WordPress professional life. It's a waste of money when it comes to using a WordPress installation on the internet with a web host as a test environment!

Today we are going to take a look at XAMPP a free server environment for Windows application. It is easy to install and is open source.

We also invite you to discover our article on How to install WordPress on a USB flash drive

xampp

What is XAMPP?

XAMPP is a cross-platform Windows application (Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl). It is a simple and lightweight solution that allows you to create a local web server for testing purposes.

Since XAMPP has gone cross-platform, it also works on Mac and Linux, but today we will be looking to set up XAMPP on Windows.

WordPress is not a stand-alone application, so it needs server software to run. XAMPP provides the necessary environment to run WordPress on a local machine.

We also invite you to discover How to install WordPress on Google Cloud

Installing XAMPP

Go to the Apache Friends web site et download XAMPP .

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The XAMPP file weighs approximately 145 MB. Once downloaded, launch the installer. You may receive warnings about installing software on your computer. As you would when installing software on Windows, use your good judgment.

The XAMPP setup wizard will guide you through the installation.

xampp-install

In the next window, you will be prompted to select which components of the software you want to install and which ones you do not want. Some options, such as: Apache and PHP are grayed out, because they are essential and essential for the smooth operation of XAMPP.

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It will therefore be up to you to choose the rest of the components that you want or do not want. As we need to install WordPress in localhost, we will leave MySQL and phpMyAdmin checked and uncheck the remaining options.

Choose the software components you want to install and uncheck the ones you do not want.

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Then select the folder where you want to install XAMPP. We will create a new folder in C: Program FilesXAMPP.

Xampp-select-the folder

In the next window you will be asked if you want to install Bitnami for XAMPP, which offers free tools for installing WordPress, Drupal and Joomla!

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We are going to install WordPress manually and without this program. promotion, so uncheck the option (Learn More about Bitnami for XAMPP) which means โ€œLearn more about Bitnami for XAMPPโ€ and then click on โ€œNextโ€ or โ€œNextโ€.

In this tutorial, we will configure WordPress manually, so uncheck this option.

After going through all these options, XAMPP is now ready to be installed.

We are almost there ...

 Once installed, you will be asked if you want to start the Control Panel. Leave this option checked and click "Finish".

Installation is fast

If you receive any security / firewall warnings during the installation process (like the one below), check โ€œPrivate networks, such as my home or work networkโ€ and click โ€œAllow Accessโ€. โ€œThis is very important. If you do not allow this access, XAMPP will not work.

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Allow access to Apache and MySQL to ensure that XAMPP will work.

After you finish the installation, you will be asked if you want to launch the Control Panel? if you tick yes then the control panel will open automatically. If not, go to the XAMPP folder on your computer and run the XAMPP Control Panel or English (XAMPP Control Panel).

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Start Apache and MySQL. If you have installed XAMPP correctly, these two components should work without any errors, however, if there are other applications on your computer that use the same ports as these modules you should close those conflicting applications and restart XAMPP.

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You can check if your new local server is installed by typing the following address. http: // localhost in the address bar of your browser.

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Before installing WordPress, we need a database. 

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On your XAMPP Control Panel, click on the "Admin" button in the MySQL section.how to install local wordpress pc windows xampp 13

A new window will automatically open with the phpMyAdmin interface.

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Click on "Admin" to in the MySQL or go section and type the following address: "localhost / phpmyadmin" into your browser.

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If the displayed interface has another language different from yours, you can change it in the โ€œAppearance Settingsโ€ section. But if all goes well, the phpMyAdmin interface should launch with the default system language.

Click on "DatabasesAbove and to the left and you will be prompted to create a new database. I called mine " WP". When you have entered a name, click on "Create" and close the window.how to install local wordpress pc windows xampp 9

Download the latest version of WordPress. 

In order for WordPress to work quite well with XAMPP we need to unzip WordPress in the right folder. Go to the XAMPP folder on your computer and open the htdocs folder, which is C: / Program Files / XAMPP / htdocs.

Go to the XAMPP / htdocs folder on your computer

Unzip WordPress into its own folder and rename it whatever you want. For consistency, I'll call this WordPress install "WP" to match the name of the database I just created.

My installation of WordPress is called "WP".

Open your WordPress folder, find the file wp-config-sample.php and rename it wp-config.php . Open the file and scroll down until you see the following lines:

Update your wp-config.php file with the details of your database.

These lines of code define the connection information for your database. Replace "database_name_here" with the name of your database, which in my case is "WP".

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Replace "username_here" and "password_here" with "root", which is the default username and password.

NB: Some versions of phpMyAdmin come with a root user without a password. So if this is the case with you, leave the password blank ""

Save the file and close it.

Now we can move on to installing WordPress.

Open your browser and go to  http://localhost/wp/

You should see the welcome screen of the famous WordPress installation process in five minutes.

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Enter your details and click โ€œInstall WordPress. "

Log in with your login and voila

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Your WordPress installation is now complete!

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We also invite you to consult the resources below to take more ownership and control of your website and blog.

Conclusion

XAMPP provides an easy way to run a local server environment on your Windows machine, allowing you to test and develop locally, rather than installing WordPress on the internet. It can also save you a lot of time since you won't have to install and uninstall WordPress every time you test themes and plugins.

The great news about XAMPP is that it's free and also open source. You can configure as many WordPress installations as you want.

However, you can also consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation or the one on Divi: the best WordPress theme of all time.

If you liked this tutorial, do not hesitate to share on your different social networks and to comment on it in the reserved section.

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