Harsh J

Memoirs of a QWERTY Keyboard

Setup WordPress locally

20 comments

Most of you perhaps already know this but still, here we go:

For Windows:

  1. Download XAMPP Lite (A Combo of MySQL, Apache Web Server and PHP5)
  2. Download WordPress 2
  3. Extract XAMPP Lite’s 7z Self-Extractor in a convenient location like, C:/xampp for example.
  4. Enter the C:/xampp or the location of extraction you provided and run the setup_xampp.bat in it to set XAMPP up.
  5. Start the xampp-control.exe executable program and click the Start buttons next to MySQL and Apache options. Now click the tray icon that appears and the Control Panel disappears to that place.
  6. Now test your local server, go to http://localhost/xampp/splash.php
  7. Choose your language there, and in the following panel, look at the left middle bottom to see a “phpMyAdmin”. Open it.
  8. In Create New Database put in a name, (I chose wordpress) and select the encoding as utf8_unicode_ci (optional).
  9. Extract the WordPress.zip to any location of your choice. I chose C:/wordpress
  10. Open the folder you just extracted it in (C:/wordpress here).
  11. Rename the wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php. Open the thus renamed file.
  12. In the top part, where you see stuff like define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the database Put DB_NAME as wordpress (or the name of the database you created)
  13. Put DB_USER as root.
  14. Make the DB_PASSWORD like look like define('DB_PASSWORD', ''); // ...and password Notice the blank quotes instead of it being filled.
  15. Thats it. Now move your C:/wordpress (or whatever your folder name is), into the C:/xampp (or wherever its location is) and then into the htdocs folder inside. Hit http://localhost/wordpress to see your blog in action. Happy breaking.


Written by Harsh

March 6th, 2007 at 10:13 am

Posted in Blog,Software

Tagged with ,

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20 Responses to 'Setup WordPress locally'

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  1. good tut dude….

    anomit

    7 Mar 07 at 5:16 pm

  2. xaamp is quite sloq (at 250 MB installed size.) EasyPHP is better that way and faster. xaamp also has additional features such as Mercury mail and others. currently using WordPress 2.1.2 on EasyPHP.

    saurabh.sauron

    8 Mar 07 at 3:51 pm

  3. @Saurabh – XAMPP Lite just takes around 130~ MB.

    Harsh J

    8 Mar 07 at 5:37 pm

  4. Good tut. Setting up a WP blog on your own system is incredibly useful. Back in the day before I was on a Linux box I would use WAMP for Windows. Linux makes it a bit easier to set up a local install of WP since it already has PHP, MySql & Apache running locally anyway. But still, great tut!

    Ben G.

    9 Mar 07 at 8:12 pm

  5. [...] know how to set up a WordPress blog on your own computer but for those who might not know this here’s a great tutorial. Setting up a local copy of WP is exceedingly useful for testing and development. Share This [...]

    Setup WordPress Locally | Open Switch

    9 Mar 07 at 8:14 pm

  6. Right! Linux just needs a small installation of MySQL, Apache, PHP and also, Ubuntu’s repos have WordPress too! Just apt-get them all and all these steps go to the dump heh!

    Harsh J

    9 Mar 07 at 8:27 pm

  7. What are, if any, the security implications behind running MySQL, Apache, and PHP locally on a desktop install of Linux (Ubuntu)?

    Mark

    9 Mar 07 at 9:42 pm

  8. @Mark – As long as your Port 80 (Default HTTP Server port for Apache) isn’t forwarded, I guess there isn’t a security issue in running a locally hosted WordPress blog. However, on hosting it like another Webserver, there could be various security problems, you got to know your way around permissions, script executions, etc to avoid them.

    Harsh J

    9 Mar 07 at 11:06 pm

  9. I made a tutorial on how to install WP on a usb stick (link)

    Ralph Dagza

    10 Mar 07 at 1:35 am

  10. You should also take a look at the Web-Developer Server Suite. It comes withg WordPress pre-configured. Use what works the best for you.

    Apache and WordPress

    14 Mar 07 at 2:05 am

  11. that’s a good step-by-step run-through but you can also bypass all the low-level setup and just get the WordPress JumpBox-> http://www.jumpbox.com/wordpress-blogging-jumpbox/

    double-click the .pvs or .vmx file depending on which virtualization technology you want to use (Xen, Parallels or VMware). Fire it up and complete the 1pg config form and you have a full working instance that can be unlocked if you need access to the internals.

    sean

    Sean Tierney

    30 Mar 07 at 4:02 am

  12. Thanks , I could test themes , plugins before uploading, and very good tutorial !

    Jayahari

    25 Dec 07 at 10:09 pm

  13. I am a non-tecn person.
    Lets say I use my desktop as a server using XAMPP.
    I install wordpress and add more plugins to the folders.
    Now for those plugins to reflect on the website do I have to keep my machine ON all teh time?
    I mean if I switch off my machine, the plugins will cease to exist for anyone who views my blog online.. ? coz the plugins r on my machine… or is it that wordpress creates a backup copy of all plugins in the users account???

    P

    3 Jan 08 at 2:57 am

  14. If you use a desktop as a server, logically enough it should be ON as long as you wish it to run, correct?

    Perhaps am not understanding your question right. As long as WordPress runs over any webserver (XAMPP in our case), it’ll keep the plugins running as well. What’re you asking about?

    Harsh

    3 Jan 08 at 5:22 pm

  15. P, no your blog won’t be running on wordpress then. This tutorial is to download and run “wordpress software on your own PC”. So, if you turn off your PC your whole site will be down.
    Let this tutorial be for geeks like Harsh only cos you are opening up your machine to secutiy and maintainance woes. It’s difficult for non-techies to handle.
    Jayahari yeah, a local server is really nice to test out themes, plugins and hacks before implementing it on the actual blog.

    mehul

    5 Jan 08 at 1:47 am

  16. Hi,

    I am stuck. I am following the instructions above but when i enter http://localhost/xampp/splash.php into my internet browser i just get a blank page…

    patrick

    23 May 09 at 9:48 pm

  17. @patrick – I don’t know how much XAMPP has changed in these two years since writing this article, but once you’ve run the server just head to http://localhost and if it shows a server page or a blank page instead of a browser error then you are good to go on to the next steps!

    I shall give these steps another try on Windows and will update it as I get time, in case it doesn’t work :)

    Harsh

    23 May 09 at 10:15 pm

  18. Thanks Harsh,

    When I type in local host should it not throw up a page which i use to select a language and create a new database….

    When i try in Firefox I get a blank page with a ‘done’ in the bottom left hand corner. When i try it in IE i get the ‘internet explorer cannot display the webpage’ message.

    P

    patrick

    23 May 09 at 10:55 pm

  19. patrick – Give me an hour or so to try this out and clean the steps up?

    Also, I’d like to know the versions of software you’re using. I don’t wish that you wait, so do try out the possible guides available here! :)

    Harsh

    23 May 09 at 11:04 pm

  20. Thanks

    I have just uninstalled Xmapp and reinstalled it. Unfortunately i still have the same problem.

    I get get stuck at step 6

    P

    patrick

    24 May 09 at 12:04 am

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