Did you know that you can install WordPress on your own Windows computer for learning and testing? Working with WordPress for Windows is a great way to test plugins, updates, and other website changes before pushing them live to your au
dience. In this article, we’ll show you how to install WordPress locally using WAMP.
The process of installing WordPress on your personal computer is also known as setting up a local server environment or localhost. Often theme designers and plugin developers install WordPress on a local server environment to speed up their development process.
It’s a good idea to use WordPress for Windows in order to test any major changes to your site. This way you can catch and fix any issues before they affect your audience.
Note: If you install WordPress locally on Windows, then the only person who can see that site is you. If you want to create a WordPress blog that is available to the public, then you need to have a domain name and web hosting. We recommend that you follow this guide on how to install WordPress.
Having that said, let’s take a look at how to install WordPress on localhost using WAMP.
What is WAMP?
WAMP, also called WampServer, is a compilation of Apache web server, PHP and MySQL bundled for Windows computers. You need WAMP to setup your own local server environment and install WordPress on Windows. There are other clients for Windows such as XAMPP, but we use and recommend WAMP. It is free and easy to use.
Installing WampServer on your PC
The first thing you need to do is go to the WampServer website and download the latest WampServer. You will be presented with various options on their download page. Simply choose the one that applies to your Windows (64-bit or 32-bit). When in doubt, select the 32-bit version because it will also work on 64-bit versions of Windows.
Once you have downloaded WampServer, run the installation program and carefully follow on-screen instructions.
At one point during the installation, WampServer will ask for the location of the default web browser.
By default it will use Internet Explorer, but you can change that to Google Chrome or Firefox by locating the browser in Program Files.
Once you are done with the installation, launch WampServer.
Setting Up a Database for WordPress
Next, you’ll need to create a blank MySQL database WordPress can use.
WampServer comes with phpMyAdmin, a web based application to manage MySQL databases. Click on the Wampserver icon in windows taskbar and then click on phpmyadmin.
The phpMyAdmin login screen will open in a new browser window. By default, the Username will be root, and you can leave the password field blank
Once logged in, click on Databases in phpmMyAdmin to create a new database for WordPress. You will be asked to choose a name for your database (we named ours test_db). After that click on the Create button.