Installing and Running WordPress with Wamp
In this tutorial, I will show you how to install and run WordPress on your Windows computer using an application called Wamp.
You can host a site directly on the server like Godaddy but in many cases editing code directly to the server is not advisable. For example, if you are building a theme or making a plugin changing the code on the server may affect your site. In that case, hosting on your local server is the best option.
Tools used to install WordPress on your computer:
In this tutorial, we will focus on Windows OS and will install WAMP, however, if you are Mac user you can install MAMP server it is similar to WAMP Server.
What is WAMPserver?
Wamp is an acronym that stands for :
W: Windows (Your operating system).
A: Apache ( A web server application ).
M: MySQL (Database server used by WordPress).
P: PHP (the Programming language used by WordPress).
WAMP in total is a combination of a web server, a database system and programming language to run WordPress on your windows computer.
The main advantage of setting up WAMP server on your local is that you don’t need an internet connection to work on your website. You can edit files directly on a local machine and check the output. You do not need to upload and download your files to the server again and again to see the changes.
Getting Wamp Server
WAMP is open source that means you can download and install WAMP server for free.
Download the version that suits your system requirement. To check your system setting go to Control Panel\System and Security\System.
Note: If you have windows 10 it must be 64 bit but it is always good to verify.
If you are downloading WAMP server for the first time when you click the download link it will give you a popup with lots of warning, There is a link “download directly” but if you do so your WAMP might not work properly.
So before clicking download directly button click the link given in warning
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679
Download Visual C++ package as WAMP server is dependent on this package to install. Once you download and set up Visual C++, just reboot your system and try to download WAMP again, with download direct link and you are ready to go.
Download and run WordPress
WordPress is open source you can download it for free. To download go to https://wordpress.org/. click on the blue button to download WordPress.
Before downloading let’s quickly run through what all WordPress has to offer
- Free themes options, where you can download themes for free.
- Download plugins available for free to extend WordPress functionality.
You can install these themes and plugin directly within WordPress also so let us install WAMP and WordPress.
Installing WAMP
Run the standard install procedure to download WAMP setup, Once you install the server, hit windows key type ‘wamp’ and start the server. The wamp server is running if you see a green icon at the bottom right corner.
To test it is working click on localhost it will open in the default browser you have chosen while installing wamp server or else simply type localhost on the web browser.
You will see the screen as above on starting the local server. You can simply type localhost in your browser and it should work.
If you click on localhost and nothing shows, or the WAMP icon is not green ( if it is orange or red) then there is something wrong so either need to change some of the configurations or you need to reinstall <a href=”http://forum.wampserver.com/read.php?2,89251″>Check here</a>
When your WAMP server is up and running you can move on to next step that is installing WordPress.
Install WordPress
Get those WordPress files that you downloaded previously this must be a zip file and if you have not changed the Path it will be in your downloads folder.
Go to your downloads folder and extract those files. It might take some time to extract. You will find a folder WordPress and inside that a lot of folders. These files and folder you are going to use for setting up your website.
Where to place these files to run on the server?
Step 1: Start Wamp: Goto start and type WAMP, click WAMP.
Step2: Click on the green icon of the bottom right corner.
Step3: Click on “www directory”. It will open the exact directory where you will copy WordPress files which you extracted.
Step 4 : Not if add a new folder called <<mysite>>, cut and paste all files into WordPress folder to <<mysite>> folder.
Step 5: Then go to the web browser. type <<localhost/mysite>>. You will be redirected to setting up a WordPress site. It will look like below
Step6: Now you can see WordPress installer and WordPress is working together. Here Url for my localhost is <<localhost/mysite>> we can customize it to <a href=”#” style=”display:none”>set us custom domain you can check here</a>
Link WordPress to a database:
We have access to WordPress under WAMP. we need WordPress to actually work by linking WordPress with the database. To do this you must set up the database first.
Step1 : This is done using PhpMyAdmin. Goto <<localhost/phpmyadmin>>
Step 2: Enter Credentials
If you have read the warnings while installing WordPress you will find the default
username: root/password: ‘ ‘/ server choice: MySql.
When logged in you will see the following screen
Step3: Create New Database
Click database tab, give your database a name called say <<mysite>>. We do not actually need to create anything inside database just create an empty database.
The database created has same username and password as Phpmyadmin (root and blank)
Step4: Go to <<localhost/mysite>> to continue WordPress install. Check if you have everything asked here. Then Click Lets go.
Step 6:
Change your database name to the database you created i.e <<mysite>> and change username to root and password to blank. Table prefix can be anything you like or you can leave as it is
Click submit.
Step 7:
Step 8: Fill on the details asked
Change the title username and password as you want. Click install WordPress
If you reach till this point goto browser type <<localhost/phpmyadmin>> and go to database <<mysite>>
WOW!!It works like magic and WordPress automatically created a lot of tables inside the database and you are good enough to launch a website.
You notice one thing with table name it all starting with wp_ as we have selected table prefix as wp_ while installing WordPress.
We are ready to check our website locally
Go back to browser type <<localhost/mysite/wp-admin>>
Add username and password added during setup. Click login
This is the backend for WordPress click on the link to the front page. Click <<localhost/mysite>>
Here you are ready to go with your first WordPress site enjoy 🙂
Learn WordPress Coming Next.
I am sure this paragraph has touched all the internet viewers, its really really nice post on building up new web site.|
I used to be able to find good info from your blog posts.
I have been surfing online more than 3 hours as of late, but I never discovered any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty value sufficient for me.
In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content
as you did, the net can be a lot more helpful than ever before.
Hey there, You’ve performed an incredible job. I will certainly digg it and in my view recommend to my friends.
I am confident they will be benefited from this website. http://centralradiatorcentre.com.au/UserProfile/tabid/42/UserID/965052/Default.aspx
Aw, this was a really good post. Taking the time and actual effort to create a
really good article… but what can I say…
I put things off a lot and don’t manage to get nearly anything done.
Νice post. I waѕ checking the blog and I’m impreѕsed! Extrеmеly useful infοгmation particularly the last ρart 🙂 I care for such info mսch. I
was looking for this particular info fօr a very long time.
Thank you and best of lᥙck.