Do you want to install WordPress on your Windows computer locally? Working with WordPress on your computer allows you to test new WordPress features, learn how to develop with WordPress, and make websites before migrating them to the live server. In this article, we will show you how to properly install WordPress on Windows using WAMP.
Why You Should Install WordPress on Windows?
Installing WordPress locally on your computer gives you a testing environment that doesn’t affect your live website or blog. A WordPress install on your computer is also referred to as local server or localhost.
Normally WordPress developers use local WordPress install to develop their plugins and themes. Beginner users can also install WordPress on their computers to learn WordPress, test new WordPress theme and plugins, and experiment without affecting a live website.
Note: If you install WordPress locally on Windows, then the only person who can see that site is you. If you want to make a website 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 start a WordPress blog.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to properly install WordPress on Windows using WAMP.
What is WAMP?
WAMP, is a compilation of Apache web server, PHP and MySQL bundled for Windows computers.
All of them are separate open source software. However, installing them separately is not quite easy even for experienced users. Software like WAMP allow you to easily install them and have a working local environment within minutes.
Step 1. Installing WAMP on Windows Computer
First, you need to download the WAMP software and install it on your computer. Simply go to the WampServer website and click on the ‘Start Using WampServer’ button.
It will take you to the downloads section. You’ll see two versions here: WampServer 32 bits and WampServer 64 bits. You need to select the WampServer version that matches the operating system type of your Windows computer.
To find out whether you are using 32 or 64-bit operating system, go to Control Panel » System and Security » System in your computer. There you will be able to see your operating system type.
Once downloaded, you can click on the wampserver execution file to run the installation. Make sure that you carefully follow the instructions on the installation screen.
During the installation process, you need to define the location for the web browser. By default, it will be Internet Explorer. You can change that to Google Chrome or any other web browser by locating it in the Program Files of your computer.
Once installed, you can launch the WampServer to continue.
Step 2. Setting Up a Database for Local WordPress Setup
Next thing you need to do is to create a blank MySQL database. On launching WAMP, you’ll see a green WampServer icon at the bottom right corner of your screen along with other icons. Simply click on it and then click on phpMyAdmin (a web based application to manage MySQL databases).
Note: If the WampServer icon is red or yellow, then it means the services (Apache, MySQL, PHP) are not running. You need to start the services by clicking on the icon before setting up the database.
It will take you to the phpMyAdmin login screen on your web browser. Simply enter the username: root and leave the password field blank. These are the default credentials to login into your localhost phpMyAdmin.
Click on the ‘Go’ button to continue.
Once logged in, you need to click on Databases in phpmMyAdmin to create a new database for WordPress. It will ask you to choose a name for your new database (we named ours test_db). After that click on the ‘Create’ button.
Your database is ready which means you can now install WordPress on localhost.
Step 3. Installing WordPress on Windows Using WAMP
The next thing you need to do is download the latest version of WordPress from the WordPress.org website. It will download as a zip file.
You need to extract the zip file and copy the ‘wordpress’ folder.
Now you need to navigate to the folder where you installed WAMP.
In this tutorial, we installed WAMP in C:\wamp64, so we’ll refer to that folder going forward. But keep in mind, it may be different for you depending on where you installed the program.
Paste the ‘wordpress’ folder into the C:\wamp64\www folder.
You can rename the ‘wordpress’ folder to anything you want, such as mysite, testsite, etc. This will be the URL of your local WordPress site, so be sure to choose something you’ll remember easily.
For the sake of this tutorial, we renamed the folder from wordpress to mysite.
Next, you can open the web browser and go to http://localhost/mysite/
First, it’ll ask you to select a language and then show you the database setup information. Once you have read it carefully, go ahead and click on the ‘Let’s go’ button to continue.
After that, you need to enter your database details like database name, username, password, host, and table prefix.
The database name will be the one that you entered in the previous step. In our case, we called it ‘test_db’. The username will be ‘root’, and you can leave the password field blank. You can also leave the database host and table prefix as-is.
Next, click on the ‘Submit’ button and WordPress will create a configuration file for you in the backend.
On the next screen, you will see a success message stating that WordPress is connected to your database, and you can proceed with the installation.
Go ahead and click on the ‘Run the installation’ button to continue.
It will take you to the welcome screen for WordPress. You need to add a title for your new WordPress website, choose an admin username, enter a strong password, and provide an admin email address.
Once you’re ready, click on the ‘Install WordPress’ button.
After the installation process is complete, you’ll see a success message. In the background, WordPress has created new tables in your database and it’s ready to use.
You can then proceed to your WordPress dashboard by clicking on the ‘Log In’ button.
Congratulations, you have successfully installed WordPress on a Windows computer using WAMP.
Step 4. Enabling Pretty Permalinks in WAMP
The new version of WordPress doesn’t break your local site on changing the permalinks setting.
However if you still see the ‘page not found’ error on your pages after changing the permalinks from Settings » Permalinks in WordPress, then simply follow our guide on how to enable custom permalinks in WAMP.
Step 5. Troubleshooting WAMP Issues
WAMP is quite easy to use even for beginners. However, if you are unable to get it running, then the following troubleshooting tips would help.
Fixing the WAMP Skype Conflict
If you have Skype installed and running, then WampServer may not be able to work properly due to a conflict with Skype. The conflict is caused by both Apache and Skype using the same port 80. There is a simple fix for this problem.
Open Skype and go to Tools » Options. This will bring up a dialog box, from here you need to click on Advanced and then Connections.
Uncheck the box that says Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections. Save options and restart Skype.
Install Visual C++ Redistributable
WAMP needs Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 to run. If you don’t have it installed on your computer, then you can download and install it from the Microsoft website.
Bonus: Migrating from WAMP to Live
We’ve also written a separate guide on how to move WordPress from WAMP local server to a live site. Hopefully, you’ll find it helpful when you are ready to deploy your local site to production.
Having a local server environment is great for learning and testing purposes. But remember, if you want to start a WordPress blog for other people to see, then you do not need to install WordPress on your computer. You need to install WordPress on a WordPress hosting provider.
We hope this article helped you learn how to install WordPress on Windows using WAMP. You may also want to see our guide on 18 most important things you need to do after installing WordPress.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Thanks for this useful article. I successfully installed WordPress using Wamp. But, I get this message. “Installation failed: there has been a critical error on your website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions. Learn more about debugging in WordPress.”
Please, how can i fix it ?
For that error, you would want to take a look at our article below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-wordpress-white-screen-of-death/
Dear WPBeginner Support;
I read your tut very carefully, and didn’t see you mention about VirtualHost in WampServer, so I don’t know if I have to create a Virtual Host for my test site.
It can make URLs closer to what you would expect from a site but it is not a requirement and can be difficult for beginners to set up.
Hello,
Thank you so much for this article!
You’ve really helped me!
I’m interested to know now how to login to my site when I go on wordpress.
If you can navigate to your WordPress site then you would add /wp-admin to the end, we cover a few more options in our article below that you can also try:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-find-your-wordpress-login-url/
I followed the process accordingly but when i click on the green WAMP icon in order to create a blank MySQL database nothing pops up
The most common reason for that would be if you didn’t install the C++ redistributable if you have not done that.
Thanks a lot, really helpful
You’re welcome
Hi,
I have installed as per instructions but I am getting an error trying to log into
ERROR: Failed to set session cookie. Maybe you are using HTTP instead of HTTPS to access phpMyAdmin.
What am I doing wrong?
That is likely a hiccup with either your browser cache or a browser addon, we would recommend clearing your cache or trying to use an incognito browser to see if that helps resolve the issue.
Thanks, that works
Hi, thank you for the article. when i try to open my local host site i get the following error; There has been a critical error on your website.this is after pasting ‘wordpress’ to www folder. how may i solve this
You would want to ensure the file is unzipped, if it is you may want to try reading a fresh WordPress download to the folder to see if there was a hiccup with your download.
Hi, i need your help please, i follow all the steps in your detailed article but i saw a message “can’t select database We were able to connect to the database server (which means your username and password is okay) but not able to select the test_db database and some other that i believe you know”.
Thanks in advance!
You may want to ensure there are no typos in the database name you set, it looks like it is not able to find a database with the name given.
I am getting “Error establishing a database connection”
Any help here please
For common solutions to that error, you would want to take a look at our article below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-error-establishing-a-database-connection-in-wordpress/
Hi,
I have installed WAMP and created a WordPress site on my computer – thanks for your excellent guide. I used “mysite” as in your example to stay consistent with you as I built my software kingdom. Now that things are looking good, is it possible to simply rename the “mysite” folder (which is inside “www” to my preferred name, or is it more complicated than that? I’m trying to avoid starting over. Thanks
We would recommend staying with the format you’ve set up already if possible and once you have hosting ready we would recommend taking a look at our guide below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-from-local-server-to-live-site/
Hi,
Can I use this system to test a previous back up I did via the server control panel?
I have a zip file which is a mirror of my directory on the server, including database and WP-admin file.
I would line to test if the backup I have works fine and possible run it on a precioys version of the WP
You would want to check with the tool you are using for the specifics but it should allow you to do what you’re wanting.
Installed WAMP and WordPress – thanks for the wonderfully detailed instructions! So now it’s time to create the web site — is there a guide on wpbeginner for that?
thank you!
There are many different types of sites so there is no complete guide but for a starting point you may want to take a look at our article below. Step 3 and beyond in the guide should help.
https://www.wpbeginner.com/guides/
First, thank you so much for the guide! It’s working. Second, is there a way wherein after you create the website, would there a way to view the site after you clicked the published button. Sorry for the dumb question.
If you are logged in, in the top right you should be able to open the dropdown that has your site title, and there you should find a link to view your site.
Hello,
If I install WordPress on a localhost based on the content of this blog, will I be able to use plugins like woocommerce, elementor, astra & kadence?
Thank you.
Yes, installing locally you would be able to use plugins and page builders like those on your site
Hi,
I am at the point where I would put localhost/mysite/ in the browser. I am getting the “404 not found error”.
I named the copy of wordpress to wamp the same and have double checked the address to see if it’s typed in correctly. This still happens, what am I doing wrong?
Thanks!
You would want to ensure you’re not running into the Skype error where it is trying to use port 80 while WAMP is.
Currently, the WAMP website is down which is why we’ve added a different link and included a note above and are working on updating this article as quickly as we are able
WAMP link redirects to a different site.
Hi team,
I followed the guide but when I go to local host/my site/ I have this error: your don’t have permission to access my site on this server.
Can you please help?
My folders are in this order: c/wamp/www folder/mysite, is that correct?
That is the correct location, you would want to ensure WAMP is running when you see that specific error message.
Our published website was created using an older versions of WP, themes, and plugins. I would like to test against the latest versions of WP, themes, and plugins on a local PC installation.
If I backup the website data from the live online WP account using UpdraftPLus, can I restore the files on the local installation to test against the latest versions of WP, themes, and plugins?
If not, what is the most effective method to do so?
Thank you so much!
You can do that or you could create a staging environment here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-staging-environment-for-a-wordpress-site/
Hi, the WampServer link (website) has not been working the past few days. Is there an alternative place to get it? Thanks.
Not that we would recommend at the moment, hopefully, the issues on the site at the moment are resolved and the site starts working again soon.
I am trying to do the localhost/mysite/ part but every time I search this it says url not found how do I put the WordPress folder with the WAMP folder
You would go to where you installed WAMP on your computer, and place the mysite folder inside the www folder
I installed WAMP and able to see a GREEN icon in system tray.
But i am not able to see anything when i click on that icon.No PHP database nothing at all.I uninstalled and reinstalled but didn’t work.
Would you please help?
thank you so much.
You would normally want to enter localhost in your browser while the green W is in your icon tray to find that
I installed WampServer, but it wouldn’t run. All I saw was a couple of windows with command prompts briefly appear and then disappear.
You should see the WAMP icon if you expand your icon tray in the bottom right
it happened with me, and solved it like that:
when entering the database name, and user name,
you may forgot and left the default password as written “Password”
(as happened with me)
without change it to a private password or at least remove the word “Password” and keep the field of password blank,
Thanks for sharing the issue you ran into should others have this issue
Thanks for this. I was having trouble at this point. Have reinstalled everything and couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong.
Can I install WordPress plugins in this WordPress on Windows 10 environment?
Unless the plugin specifies otherwise(mainly plugins that connect to 3rd party services), you would be able to use plugins on a local installation
Hi, I followed this guide a few weeks ago and set up the very beginnings of a test site. I now can’t remember or work out how to get back to editing the site! It’s maddening as I can launch WAMP, go to localhost/testsite/ and view the site I made but please can someone let me know how to enter editing mode!! Many thanks
You would want to add /wp-admin to be able to log into your local installation of WordPress to be able to start editing it again
Thank you!!! Exactly what I needed to develop before making a site live
You’re welcome, glad our guide could be helpful
Installed Wamp with no trouble thanks to your concise directions. However, after creating my database and starting the WP install I get this message:
“We were able to connect to the database server (which means your username and password is okay) but not able to select the ericajlester database.” I have been over and over checking everything to make sure the information is correct, but WP will not connect to the database. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you for such great information and support!
The most common reason for this would be a typo in your database name, you would want to ensure the database information and prefix are both correct compared to what you have set
Thank you so much!
You’re welcome
Good job is done by Wpbeginner team!!!
Have a great day!
Thank you, hope you have a great day as well
Developing WP plugin for a client. Wanted to create a dev environment without paying for hosting space to do it. Thanks for the quick and dirty path to get there.
Glad our article could help
This is a real life saver, thank you for the detailed instructions, it saved my time.
Glad our guide was helpful
Thank you for the guidance..
You’re welcome
After doing work on WordPress from WAMP, should we click on ‘Stop all services’?
only if you wish to turn of WAMP and your local installation
The Website of WAMP which you had mentioned is not working anymore. The download is not responding from Sourceforge.net,
From testing, the link is page is still working on our end, you may want to ensure this isn’t due to a browser or browser addon preventing your download.
Hey, I installed WAMP in the Internet Explorer folder, but once when I checked to search for my same localhost running on Explorer appeared in Chrome. But can I also Use the same Localhost from Chrome?
If you installed your site in the wamp folder then you should be able to visit the site at localhost on any browser on that computer
localhost/phpmyadmin not opening with any browser. when trying to open there are showing an error ( This site can’t be reached – ERR_CONNECTION_RESET )
How can i fix this error plz tell me .
thanks…
If you’ve shut down your computer since the last time you used WAMP you would want to ensure it is running before visiting localhost.
Thank you very much for your guidance step by step.
You’re welcome
The code execution cannot proceed because MSVCR120.dil was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix the problem.
The code excicution cannot proceed because VCRUNTIME140.dil was not found.
Reinstalling the program may fix the problem.
I get this error even after reinstalling many times.
Please help
You would want to download the C++ redistributable we link to in the article and that should get you past these errors.
Hi, Thank you so very much for being here! All your information etc. is truly a gift, and it’s appreciated very much!
I’ve successfully installed WAMP and WordPress on my local computer and have played around somewhat. I’d like to refresh WordPress to start fresh again. Can you point me in the direction of doing this?
Thanks much!
Dean
You could either delete the WordPress folder and install a new WordPress site or you could reset your database using the method in our article here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-database-reset/
Thanks so much!
Glad we could help
Great tutorial. I’ve been building sites for a long time in Dreamweaver, switched to WordPress in 2015 and am now using Divi by Elegant Themes to build my sites. I need to rebuild an existing website for a yoga studio I did in 2015 without bringing down the current site and this is just the answer! Fabulous job in explaining step-by-step how to do it. Thank you so much! I am so excited to get working on this!!!
Glad our tutorial could help
I’ve been thinking about the blogging thing and didn’t want to go straight into a Live site. This tutorial is awesome Thank you. I have installed WordPress to a localhost and now I can put everything in my test site. So Stoked!!
Awesome, glad our article could help you get a localhost site set up for you to test
Quick question, Which ports rely on this, so i can create firewall rules in our firewall as well as have our Server Team create them in windows? Thanks for any info.
Sadly, there are too many programs that may or may not use the ports for us to give a list at the moment.
Thank you for this excellent tutorial. I have been a WP webmaster for about a year at work and finally decided to set up my own page about flight simulation. I followed the instructions to the letter and now have WP setup on my home PC ready to build the next earth shattering website. I am by no means a noobie to the net, but never dug into all this. Without your help, I’d be floundering. Thank you again. The WPverse is truly a grand community.
You’re welcome, glad our guide could help you
I am having an issue with my login setup it says. (see it below) even though I login in PHP server with new data still says that. what am I gonna do.?
Error establishing a database connection
This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your host’s database server is down.
Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
Are you sure that the database server is running?
If you’re unsure what these terms mean you should probably contact your host. If you still need help you can always visit the WordPress Support Forums.
You would want to edit your wp-config file in a text editor and ensure your information in this file is correct. We have an article on how to edit it here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-edit-wp-config-php-file-in-wordpress/
Specifically, the database name is normally where problems can happen
Thank you very much for this awesome solution. I was searching for something like that and I have seen that you have provided an additional tutorial of how to deploy the offline WP website to a web hoster. Great work THX again.
You’re welcome, glad our guides can be helpful
For all who faced the issue ‘404’ when tried ‘localhost/{yourSiteName}’, one possible solution (for me at least) is to add also the port of wamp server e.g. localhost:8080/{yourSiteName}
Thanks for sharing a possible solution
I am building a website for a friend. She already has an old site which is live. I plan to build the new one locally using WAMP.
However, while working on it how do I share my progress with her? So that she can revert for any changes.
There isn’t a simple method for allowing someone to view your local installation, you may want to check with the hosting provider to see if there is the option of a staging environment for an easier method of what you’re wanting.
Thanks for the great step by step guide.
Just wondered if I could screen share say through skype or Zoom?
That is one possibility it just means that the user can’t directly interact with the site.
Hi I would like to install/ run my sample wordpress site off of an external harddrive on various machines of my choosing. Is there any special instructions for this or do I simply install WAMP as described except onto the external drive?
It is an older article, but for what you’re wanting you would use XAMPP: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-on-a-usb-stick-using-xampp/
Hi, you missed an entire step, and it’s a complicated one. All the MS C++ applications. I don’t know what to download or where to save them. Very confusing. There must be an easier way to host a demo WordPress site than this??
Thanks for letting us know, we will certainly look to include that information when we update this article. For the time being, you should be able to go to the WAMP forums and the specific files should be linked and you would only need to install them where they automatically set their installations
You don’t need all of them, just the ones shown in the WAMPserver page when you click either download (it’s the second “warning” – yes, it’s in French) – just get the 64/32bit versisons of those.
hi, first of all thanks for the amazing tutorials!
i have a question – I want to create my first website with wordpress. i thought about using wamp to save the money of the domain use and hosting and then move the website to the domain after it is done.
do you think that’s a good idea? will it be a problem to move the website from the local server to the live site as described it this tutorial? –
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-from-local-server-to-live-site/
You could certainly create your site locally and then follow the steps in that article to move your site and you shouldn’t run into any problems.