If you like developing WordPress themes and plugins or even tweaking and testing your soon to be website then this tutorial is for you! It will teach you how to get WordPress up and running within Windows.

Here are the steps for installing WordPress on your computer:

Part 1

Download the latest version of XAMPP, I personally like to use the lite version with the “executable” for easy installation.

Start the XAMPP installer, during installation you will be asked to choose a destination folder. I use c:\xampp for convenience. On the next install screen you will be given a few XAMPP options (as seen below), make sure the install Apache and MySQL services are both ticked and then click install. The Filezilla service is not needed.

Once the XAMPP installation is finished you will notice a new icon in your Window’s Taskbar (as seen below).

Double click the XAMPP icon in your Taskbar and the XAMPP Control Panel will come on screen (as seen below). You need to make sure both Apache and MySQL services are running. If they are then you’re good to go!

Open your internet browser and type the following address in the internet address bar: http://localhost/xampp/splash.php. You should now be greeted with the XAMPP Splash Screen (as seen below)

(I hope you’re all using one of the safest and most internet friendly browsers which is, Mozilla Firefox?)

After you have picked your language, you will then need to click phpMyAdmin (as seen below).

In the Create New Database Field, enter the word wordpress, and select utf8_unicode_ci in the drop down box in the next field. Click Create (as seen below). XAMPP is now installed!

Part 2

Download and unzip the latest version of WordPress from WordPress.org. The file sizes are normally under two megabytes.

You will then need to open the file wp-config-sample.php with Windows Notepad or WordPad. I personally like the freeware program PSPad for editing PHP files.

Within the wp-config-sample.php you need to find the following lines and make the details match my code:

define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');    // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'root');     // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', ''); // ...and password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');    // 99% chance you won't need to change this value

You will not need a database password. You should only change the database name and database username. Then rename the file as wp-config.php and save it.

Now you will need to move the whole wordpress folder to Windows Start button > My Computer > C drive > xampp > htdocs (as seen below).

For the final step in this tutorial you need to enter the following address into your browser: http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php, and follow the steps.