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.
You are legend guys! Thanks.
Thank you so much for this very nice article for beginners
api-ms-win-crt-string-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer it shows error?
You would want to ensure you install Visual C++ Pro for the most common solution to that error.
Hi – I have WAMP installed locally on my Windows 10 machine running PHP version: 7.3.12. I want to upgrade to PHP 7.4 – do I need to reinstall WAMP or can I update PHP separately?
You would want to click on the WAMP icon, and check under PHP, Version and depending on when you installed WAMP there should be the option to change versions by clicking on the version you want to use.
thanks – this was perfect advice!
Thanks for this article! It is the best and most straight-forward one I’ve come across, it’s very helpful and detailed. Keep up the great work! As a beginner, I really appreciate it.
Glad you found our guide helpful
This is awesome! Thank you for making this article!
Glad you found our guide helpful
While installing, I got a System error that says ”The code execution cannot proceed because MSVCR120.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem'”
How can I get this done please
You need to install Visual C++ Redistributable that we link to in the article
I have installed wordpress in wamp and completed my first website. I have got another project now. So for the second website how should I start?Should I install wordpress again in a second “mysite2” folder?
You can certainly do that for the most common method for creating a new site.
im receiving myssqld.exe- system error. how do i fix it
You would want to ensure you installed Visual C++ Redistributable
WAMP64 will not install on a win7 64 machine.
Unless we hear otherwise, you can install it on Windows 7 still, depending on the error you are running into, you may need to reach out to WAMP’s support.
Great instructions, thanks.
Everything installed fine, just have a problem this morning in trying to log into the browser. Every setting I have tried hasn’t worked.
I know I am being thick but could you confirm what I should be typing in the browser to access the program.
Thanks
As we state in the article, it should be something similar to localhost/mysite. You would also want to ensure WAMP is running for the most common reason for that issue.
I was having similar issue as others. All went well until I got to the point with Apache not running. The issue was with Port 80 it was used by something else (not skype) so I went to Tools > Use other port than 80 I added the port 8080. Then it all worked however then when you want to access your website you can’t use localhost/mysite/ but localhost:8080/mysite/ since you changed the default port.
I didn’t find this in the comments. Maybe it will help someone.
Thanks for sharing what helped you with this issue
Hi, thanks for the tutorial. I completed it, and it works like a charm. But now my question is: how do I get my “real” live website data in the local test environment? Is there some way to export that and import it into the local test environment?
For that, you would want to take a look at our article below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-live-wordpress-site-to-local-server/
here i have downloaded the wordpress file and done everything according to the given instruction . but lastly stuck in the localhost address bar
localhost/servername in the internet explore has to be typed to get to wordpress. but what to be type for google ,firefox. pls lhelp me with this its really urgent.
You should be able to type that same address on any internet browser to see the site on your local computer. If you wanted to have your site found online, you would want to look into a domain and hosting provider.
Thank you so much.
You’re welcome
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