To install WordPress locally on your computer is such an easy task. Actually learning WordPress is so much fun.
WordPress being easy, understandable and simply accessible is the reason why millions of people are using it for their websites.
According to the WordPress.com, WordPress is the most popular online publishing platform, currently powering more than 32% of the web from hobby blogs to the biggest news sites online.
Keeping that in mind, this article is solely focused on beginners who want to learn how to install WordPress to build a website. It is not necessary that you require technical knowledge while doing it. All you need to do is create an environment, download the WordPress and install it.
Sounds pretty much easy, right?
Let’s discuss the 5 simple and easy steps in details to install WordPress on your localhost.
1. Install a Local Server [XAMPP or WAMP or MAMP]
Table of Contents
You are going to create a local software/application on your local computer. So, the first thing you need to do is install a local server to create a localhost environment.
There is numerous server which is easily available for you to choose from. Such as XAMPP, WAMP and MAMP. Choose a suitable server according to your operating system and install it on your computer.
Let’s start with XAMPP.
What is XAMPP?
XAMPP is a free and open-source cross-platform web server solution stack package developed by Apache Friends, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages.
Installing XAMPP
It’s very easy process, You can simply go to Apache Friends and then Download XAMPP.
After the download finishes, the next step is to run the downloaded file. So Open/ Click the downloaded file. After that you will see XAMPP setup wizard, Now follow this XAMPP setup wizard it will guide you through the installation. Click Next .
After that you click in Next button, you will got to next window and you will be asked to select the components that you would like to install.
To run WordPress in our localhost environment, we need MySQL and phpMyAdmin. Therefore let them be checked and unchecked the remaining options if you don’t want to install.
Then click Next button. After that you will see Next window where you can choose path to install XAMPP in your computer, we recommend you to use the partition other then your operating system drive partition because even if you decide to change operating system later you won’t lose any of your current work.
After you click the Next button, In the next window, you’ll be asked whether you would like to install Bitnami for XAMPP, which offers free tools for installing WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla! on top of XAMPP.
Since we’re going to install WordPress manually later in this tutorial and don’t need free installers, untick “Learn more about Bitnami for XAMPP” and click Next.
Now, XAMPP is ready to be installed. Click the “Next” button and it is installed.
Once installed, you’ll be asked whether you would like to start the XAMPP Control Panel, which provides an interface for running your localhost environment. Leave this option ticked and click Finish
2. Run the Server
Once you successfully install the local server on your computer, the next thing you need to do is START the required modules for your work i.e. Apache and MySQL.
In some installation, you may see a Windows firewall notification as shown in the image below. Click on “Allow Access” button for both Apache and MySQL so as to run the applications.
After clicking the button, the status for them will turn green. If both modules are light to green then it means they are ready to use.
Once your server starts to function correctly, you will be able to process http://localhost/ on your browser from where you can start your rest of the WordPress work.
3. Create a Database
After successfully setting up your local server, now you need a database where you can store data for your WordPress site. We will be creating a MySQL database because of our chosen server.
Launch http://localhost/phpmyadmin on your browser, there you can create a new database.
Remember the credentials such as:
- Database Name: Mysite
- Username: root
- Password [leave blank]
for later use.
Now, after we have successfully created the database for our WordPress let’s head towards WordPress installation.
4. Download WordPress
Now, we a functional server and a brand new database to build our WordPress site. Therefore, it’s time to download the latest version of WordPress from WordPress.org.
You’ll get a zip file at the time of download which you need to unzip and get the actual file. You need to place that actual file under the folder named htdocs. The folder will be residing on your local server(XAMPP/WAMP/MAMP) directory.
NOTE: Create a sub-folder named with your WordPress site under folder htdocs and paste the unzipped file there. This way that sub-folder name will be used as a sub-name while accessing your site.
For example: If you created a sub-folder named Mysite then you can access your site by launching http://localhost/Mysite on your browser.
5. Install WordPress & sync your database
When you launch http://localhost/Mysite on your browser, you will be provided with required actions that you need to take care of before setting up your WordPress site.
Moving on with the process, you will also need to provide your database details. At this moment, use the details of the database which you created earlier.
Then the rest of the procedure is very much normal such as filling up the admin details for your website.
After completing all the remaining steps carefully, you will be able to run your newly built WordPress site on localhost of your browser.
By following the simple steps outlined above, you can easily install WordPress on your localhost without facing any difficulty and error.
The next step is to choose a beautiful theme which is appropriate for your project. After that, start improvising the website as per your design and development requirements. From this point onward, it may require a knowledge of technical understanding.
WRAPPING THINGS UP!
Now, you have successfully installed WordPress on your machine.
Just to make sure that you have done all the steps in a perfect manner, you can log in to your account.
Installing WordPress is a lot easier than any other work.
Once you become familiar with this exciting platform, you can do anything from blogging to making a website. It is all free.
I hope this article helped you in learning how to install WordPress locally on XAMPP.
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