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.
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.
I uninstalled Skype and installed visual C++ but after installing WAMP Server app, clicking the wamp icon in the system tray doesn’t effects and the pop-up to create a database from myphpadmin doesn’t open.
You may want to check the Skype conflict we mention in the article and should that not be the issue, reach out to WAMP’s support to see if there is a possible known issue.
Hi
I am planning to make a website of my own . Its basically a food blog. I ahve a good knowledge of programming. However, I have a gap of around 7 yrs and really dont know the new stuff in programming like bootstrap, etc..I am still in learning phase for these concepts.
Would u suggest me to make a website using wordpress.org or wordpress.com?
We would normally recommend a WordPress.org site, you can see our comparison here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/
Hi there,
I am building wordpress.com site as the client didn’t want to manage hosting separately. I have only ever used wordpress.org. Can you still design the site on a local server and upload in when completed onto a wordpress.com site? I am a little unsure of the limitations of the .com version.
Thanks so much
You would not be able to upload a new site on WordPress.com, you would normally need to build the site from the beginning on WordPress.com due to their restrictions.
Hi,
This is a great tutorial.
I am stuck with “Error establishing a database connection” error since a day. For me WAMP works fine, I created a DB then unzip the WP. After localhost/mysite it goes till language selection page get the DB details and when i submit it gives above mentioned error. Tried putting DB details in wp-config-samle.php, same error. Deleted DB created again, deleted mysite folder created again but still same error. Can somebody please help?
For that error on localhost you may want to ensure you have all of your database information set properly. The database information is normally root with a blank password or you could add a space if it is preventing you from leaving it blank unless you changed that login information.
Hey I found the solution.
Left Click Wamp Icon > Mysql x.x.x > Use port other than 3xxx > Press Ok
Any way to take a copy of my live hosted site from iPage and put a copy on the WAMP for testing with plugins, etc?
If so how would I do that?
You would want to take a look at our guide on how to do that here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-live-wordpress-site-to-local-server/
Thank you so much <3
You’re welcome
Worked awesome. Thank you.
Glad our guide helped
Wow! So straightforward! Thank you!
Glad our article was helpful
Hi, first of all thanks for a very helpful post. Secondly, a question: will having multiple wordpress installations in a single database affect the migration to a live environment when the time comes? Or should I just deploy a new database to be on the safe side? cheers
You would want to use a database for each site to make transferring environments easier.
Thanks so much. Very well written installation guide. Installed without a single glitch.
Glad our guide could help you
Awesome Stuff. Worked like a charm.
Glad our guide could help
Great.. but i want to make another data base what should i do?? should i register again?? reply as soon as possible please
For making another database for your local install, rather than visiting localhost/yoursite you would go to localhost which should have a link in the bottom left to get you to phpMyadmin
Great Tutorials:
My eyes have been opened.
That was all,which I was looking for.
Best….
Glad our article could help
nice article
Glad you like our article
Great tutorial. Worked straightaway – thanks!
Hey guys.
Thought you should know that your tutorials are being used by a scammer on YouTube to gain affiliate commissions from Bluehost.
Did you upload this video onto this channel? –
Hi Steve,
No, we did not. They just downloaded and reuploaded it on their channel. Thank you for notifying us.
Why not use IIS instead of Apache? It’s a native web server on Windows and offers much better functionality and manageability, particularly for Windows users/admins who’s used to managing Windows via the GUI tools, commands and/or PowerShell.
Hi Bharat,
Most users would move their websites to a live server, or create a development environment for a site. Most likely those hosting providers will be running Apache.
How much load does running this take on my machine? Could I put on a spare machine on my local network and access it via my LAN?
Hi Bob,
Depends on how fast your machine is. Yes, you can do that but that would require some extra steps to configure your network and server.
WaMp is bulky, full of problems and never know when it will break and you lose your databases… never use it.
This site can’t be reached localhost refused to connect.
Search Google for localhost mysite
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED
Please help!
Hi Sharon,
This means that WAMP is not running Apache. You need to restart it and then retry.
I can’t login to localhost/mysite/
Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access /mysite/ on this server.
Apache/2.4.35 (Win64) PHP/7.2.10 Server at localhost Port 80
Please help!
while installing i received warning message which was not part of the expected actions stated in the WAMP instruction steps above,. It went thus: do you want this programme (WAMP) to make changes to your pc….
Hi
I followed every step the tutorial said, but when i enter the db info before installing wordpress, i get an “error estabilishing connection to the database”.
WAMP is running ok, apache green, MySQL green, i created the database by accessing PhpMyAdmin, all the info is exactly like written in the tutorial… i searched all over the web and found absolutely nothing related to this error.
Can someone help me out?
Hi Julio,
The only reason you will get this error is when WordPress is unable to connect to your database. You need to check your database settings to make sure they are correct.
I’m trying to upload a theme but when I click to upload the zip file from my computer I get a message saying “the link you followed has expired” please try again.
Hi Tracy,
Most likely, your theme file size is too big and it gets killed during the upload. Please try the steps in our tutorial on increasing file upload size limit in WordPress.
I’m getting that error as well… brill thanks for the link to follow!
Hi, how to start my word press today. I installed it yesterday, using your instruction, but today I cannot find any icon or anything that will help me to start with it
Hi Tanja,
You will first need to start WAMP and after that you will be able to open your site in the browser.
Awesome. This worked perfectly. Thanks for sharing
I want to install WordPress on my W7 computer for experimental purposes.
But I want to use WordPress 4.9.1, instead of the latest version.
This is because I have an excellent tutorial that’s based on 4.9.1.
Is this possible?
Hi Mike,
Yes it is possible. You can download the older versions of WordPress from official website and install it following the instructions above.
Every time I try to open up Wamp, it keeps giving me this message: “Error: This program can only be installed on versions of Windows designed for the following processor architectures: x64”
My computer is a Windows 7 32-bit operating system and I’ve downloaded both the 62-bit and 32-bit wamp version yet it gives me the same message. It’s so frustrating because I’ve installed Wamp on my computer last year, then uninstalled it this year. Now, I’m trying to install it again and it gives me the same message over and over again. Does anyone know how to fix this? It’s literally driving me nuts. I’ve got a link below of the message if you want to see it:
Thank you for sharing ! it worked in first try.
Installed successfully 1st try.
Thank you!
Thanks so much, much better than silent videos on youtube.
Thanks a ton for sharing your knowledge with all of us here!
WordPress is installed successfully for me
But, now my skype has stopped…it says MSVCP140.dll missing. How can I fix this without causing any trouble to WordPress and Wamp functioning?
Perfect tutorial…thanks a lot
Thanks for this. but do i need to install wordpress again each time I put on my laptop to edit my site or create a new site? pls reply asap. thanks
The WampServer site has two versions of the software – 32 BITS or 64 BITS. Click on the version you prefer to download.
Click on “download directly,” and you’ll be taken to the website. The download will automatically start in 5 seconds.
Got it working without a hitch! Thank you so much for this. But I have another question:
As a web developer I will be creating multipule websites. If I use local WP to create 1 site, do I have to create a separate DP for each new website? And if I eventually wish to attatch it to a domain/host, is there another tutorial that I can follow that will teach me to do just that? Thank you!!
i changed wordpress name to mysite but it shows below error
Further, I tried pasting http;//localhost/wamp64 in my browser, it gives the error 404. Also, I want to build my website locally before I go live. Please assist me.
Further, I tried pasting http;//localhost/wamp/mysite but shows error. in my browser, it gives the error 404 with below mentioned
The requested URL /mysite/ was not found on this server.
Apache/2.4.23 (Win32) PHP/5.6.25 Server at localhost Port 80