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 a Windows computer using two different methods. This will work on Windows 8, Windows 10, and other versions of Windows as well.
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 a local server or localhost.
Normally, WordPress developers use local WordPress install to develop their WordPress plugins and themes.
Beginner users can also install WordPress on their computers to learn WordPress, test new WordPress themes 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 a Windows computer. We’ll show you 2 easy ways, so you can click the link below to jump ahead to any section you’re interested in:
- Method 1: Install WordPress on Windows Using Local WP
- Method 2: Install WordPress on Windows Using WampServer
Install WordPress on Windows Using Local WP
Local WP, formerly known as Local by Flywheel, is a local web software that lets you host a website on your computer instead of a staging or live server.
First, you need to download and install the Local WP software on your Windows computer. Simply go to the Local WP website and click the ‘Download for Free’ button.
After that, a popup window will appear where you’ll need to select your platform.
Go ahead and choose ‘Windows’ from the dropdown menu.
Next, you can enter your details like first and last name, work email address, and phone number to download the software.
Upon entering the details, simply click the ‘Get it Now’ button.
After that, you can download the software on your computer. Once it’s downloaded, go ahead and launch the setup wizard.
Now you’ll need to select whether you’d like to install the software for all users or only you. Once you’ve selected an option, click the ‘Next’ button.
In the next step, you can select the ‘Destination Folder’ where the software will be installed.
Simply click the ‘Browse’ button to set the path and then click the ‘Install’ button.
The Local WP software will now install on your Windows computer.
Once it’s done, you can check the ‘Run Local’ checkbox and click the ‘Finish’ button in the setup wizard.
The software will now launch on your Windows device.
The next step is to add a new local website. To do that, simply click the plus (+) button at the bottom.
After that, you can create a site in the Local software.
Go ahead and select the ‘Create a New Site’ option and click the ‘Continue’ button.
Next, you can enter a name for your local website like wordpresslocalsite.
There are also advanced options where you can enter the local site domain and local site path. If you’re just starting out, then we recommend keeping the default settings.
Once you’re done, simply click the ‘Continue’ button.
After that, you will need to choose an environment for your local website.
You can use the ‘Preferred’ environment where the software will automatically select the PHP version, web server, and MySQL version. On the other hand, you can also select ‘Custom’ and enter the environment details.
For this tutorial, we’ll use the Preferred settings and click the ‘Continue’ button.
Next, you can enter a WordPress username and password for your local website. Plus, there’s also an option to choose a WordPress email address where you’ll receive all the email notifications.
There’s also an advanced option where the software will ask whether you have a WordPress multisite network.
After entering these details, simply click the ‘Add Site’ button.
The software will now install WordPress and set up your website.
To launch the local website, go ahead and click the ‘WP Admin’ button in the software.
Next, you’ll see the WordPress admin login page.
Simply enter the username and password you entered earlier when setting up the local website and then click the ‘Log In’ button.
You can now edit your local website on your Windows computer.
When you’re done, don’t forget to stop the website from the Local WP software by clicking the ‘Stop site’ button.
Install WordPress on Windows Using WampServer
WampServer or 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 WampServer allows you to easily install them and have a working local environment within minutes.
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 a 32 or 64-bit operating system, simply search for ‘Control Panel’ in the search bar in the Start taskbar.
After that, you can go to System and Security » System on your computer. There you will be able to see your System Type.
Now that you know your Windows operating system type, simply select the correct WampServer software version.
When you click the download button, a form will open asking for your personal details. If you don’t want to provide this information, go ahead click the ‘you can download it directly’ link.
Once downloaded, you can click on the WampServer execution file to run the installation.
Now select a language from the dropdown menu and click the ‘OK’ button.
In the next step, you’ll see the License Agreement.
Go ahead and select the ‘I accept the agreement’ option and click the ‘Next’ button.
After that, the setup wizard will show information about the WampServer installation.
You can simply click the ‘Next’ button to continue.
Next, you can select the destination location where the software will be installed.
To change the default location, go ahead and click the ‘Browse’ button and choose your preferred folder. When you’re done, click the ‘Next’ button.
The setup wizard will ask you to select different components you’d like to install. These include the PHP versions, MySQL versions, and more.
You can also keep the default options and click the ‘Next’ button to move forward.
Next, you can select a start menu folder. Go ahead and click the ‘Browse’ button to choose a different folder.
Once you’ve selected a folder, click the ‘Next’ button to continue.
The software will now be ready to install. You can see a summary of the destination location, setup type, selected components, and more.
Go ahead and click the ‘Install’ button.
During the installation process, you need to define the location of 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.
Similarly, it will also ask if you’d like to use Notepad when using WampServer.
After that, the setup wizard will show information about how WampServer works.
Go ahead and click the ‘Next’ button.
You’ve now successfully installed WampServer on your Windows device.
Simply click the ‘Finish’ button to exit the setup wizard.
Once installed, you can launch the WampServer from your desktop shortcut or from the destination location where you installed the software.
The next thing you need to do is to create a blank MySQL database.
On launching WampServer, you’ll see a green icon at the bottom right corner of your screen along with other icons. Simply left-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.
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.
Next, you need to extract the zip file and copy the ‘wordpress’ folder.
For this tutorial, we are using WinRAR to unzip the file. Simply click the ‘Extract To’ option at the top.
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. However, keep in mind that 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/ and click on ‘wordpress’ folder.
First, it’ll ask you to select a language and then show you the database setup information.
After selecting a language, click the ‘Continue’ button.
Next, you’ll see a welcome to WordPress notice.
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 WampServer.
Simply login to your WordPress admin panel and start editing your site in a local environment.
Enabling Pretty Permalinks in WAMP
The new version of WordPress doesn’t break your local site by 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.
Bonus: Migrating WordPress from Local to Live
We’ve also written a separate guide on how to move WordPress from 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. However, 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 a Windows computer. You may also want to see our guide on WordPress SEO and how to start an online store.
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.
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Thomas says
Great tutorial! I’m trying to download a wordpress site to a local copy. I’ve based my self on this tutorial. So far this is what I’ve done right (I think…):
1- I’ve downloaded all the files from the live website using FileZilla to wamp/www/mysite/.
2 – I’ve exported, downloaded and zipped the live site database.
3 – Using WAMP>phpmyadmin I’ve created a new database and imported the zip file (from 2)
4- Changed the wp-config.php and updated the database name, user and password.
Now at this point, I’m able to see the homepage when I type http::/localhost/mysite. The them has been rest however. Also, the admin side as far as I can tell works perfectly.
The main problem I’m getting is that apart from the homepage I get 404 errors for all the other pages on the local site.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong! Thanks in advance!
George says
Thanks so much. I have everything up and running. Very helpful. I would not have been able to do this on my own.
maggie says
xampp is good for wordpress .It supports max range of url and all
maggie says
thanks… It was helpfull and easy
karis says
Been postponing this with the misconception that the process is tedious and takes time. Wow, thanks to you, I am now done. So easy. Thanks again for the good work. May it never go unrewarded.
Dmitry M says
Thanks for the tut, very easy to follow.
Naaz says
great..!! was as simple as 1+1 :p
Marty says
Excellent, worked 110%. Thanks dude!
Bob S says
This was an awesome tutorial! Thanks for the help
Faisal Masood says
Thanks for sharing the nice WordPress resources.
Sabine Blackburn says
Have it all installed but can not create a database in MyphpAdmin, it shows ‘No Privileges’ where the create button should be
Any suggestions?
David says
After following your instructions, I got everything right except when I wanted to log in with the “root” username. When I log in, I get this message ” #1045 Cannot log in to the MySQL server”. Please what should I do?
WPBeginner Staff says
Try to log in with blank password if that does not work you would need to reset root password for your MySQL server.
pran says
how to change the root password
Gabriel Popov says
Thanks, this article was really useful.
Omar says
Amazing!! thanks a ton!!
Aaron says
Downloaded everything. I can access wordpress but need to create a database for wordpress. When i click on phpmyadmin it takes me to a 403 forbidden error saying You don’t have permission to access /phpmyadmin/ on this server. I cant figure it out.
Annie L says
Hello – your tutorial rocks. I’m able to get pass the 5 min setup and land on the WordPress login page.
One issue, after entering the same credentials provided in the 5-min setup (/wordpress/wp-login.php), I get “SSL connection error.”. Looking at the wp-login.php file, it forces a redirect to SSL.
How do I get around it without installing a SSL locally?
Running Wamp 2.4, Windows 7, Chrome browser.
lubna says
really help tutorial bro.I just cant log in to word after the successful installation Help.
Miriam says
I think your tutorials are clearer than anything else I find for a newbie like me. Thanks!
Can you offer any suggestions for my problem creating a database? I already have a WP site under Bitnami. I decided to download WAMP to have multiple WP sites using WAMP. After installing WAMP, when I open phpMyAdmin I get a log in window. If I log in using the username/pswd originally set up (with Bitnami installation) it says I don’t have priveliges to create a database. I can log into phpMyAdmin using the usename/pswd from the Bitnami WordPress site and I have priveliges but it gives me a 1044 Error when I try to create a new database. I am not sure what to try next. Thanks in advance for any suggestion you may have.
Miriam says
I figured out that problem and am on to a different problem. After installing WAMP and putting WordPress in c:WAMP/WWW… I open a browser and try http://localhost/mysite/ but get a 404 Not Found. Could this be related to the fact that I already have Bitnami/localhost? Thanks!
Win says
You didn’t paste it in the www folder. You can’t post it in the main wordpress file — you have to navigate to the www folder and paste it next to the index.html file. This should fix your 404 error problem
Merom says
Hi,
I am facing the same problem. what exactly should I paste to www?
thanks
IBAS says
I really found this tutorial so helpful to me, thanks for the efforts
Kriss says
Wamp Server is an outdate program died on 2013. Probably it is not the best for wordpress
Laurent Lafont says
You are not saying what the username and password are when launching phpmyadmin! And all web searches are giving dummy information as well….. So now stuck…. very useful instructions indeed…….
Win says
Username: Root
Password: Blank
Helen Magner says
Thanks for the instruction. It worked well. I have had a wordpress site up and running for a year now. but now but I would like to be able to import it to to local site so that I can write and save wile I cannot connect to the internet and publish when I can get back on line. Thanks for your help.
ludovic says
Simply perfect. Merci !!!
Robert says
When i follow the steps wampserver to myphpadmin I get the login page, not the page which allows me to click on the database tab as shown in your very well written tutorial. Suggestions to get the wp-config.php file set up?
Dave says
I had the same problem, just leave the password blank & you’ll get in.
Psdfreak.com says
On that login page fill Username: “root” and press login (no password required)
Maryam Jamil says
thanks alot
your article really helps
Dharmesh Joshi says
Thanks you bro…(Y)
Vivi says
Hey! Really helpfull article, But… I can’t log in in wordpress..Firstly , in the step of installing wordpress i was directed in a blank page( logo only) , then i reloaded and said it has allready been istalled, so i procceded with the log in, but it seems that my account is not valid..nothing workd..not even the e-mail for getting a new pswrd .
What should i do? I allready copied the steps twice from the beggining with different databases and data.
nel says
your tutorial worked PERFECTLY
ty
Andy says
Please help . Thanks
installed WAMServer, as according to your instructions, I chose phpMyadmin, and I encountered this error msg, “HTTP Error 404.0 – Not Found
The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
Detailed Error Information
Module IIS Web Core
Notification MapRequestHandler
Handler StaticFile
Error Code 0×80070002
Requested URL http://localhost:80/phpmyadmin/
Physical Path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\phpmyadmin\
Logon Method Anonymous
Logon User Anonymous”
I installed and re-installed WAMServer, but encounter the same error, how do I proceed from here?
farah says
Hi, Thank you for great tutorial, I am facing an issue please help me to solve the issue. After successful installation of WAMP, when I have clicked on PhpMyAdmin , It is asking me to login , but i dont know what is my username and password that can be used here?
Regards
Farah
WPBeginner Support says
Try username root and leave password field blank
Admin
Barbara says
I had the same error and other sites had very complicated and, frankly, unsuccessful suggestions on how to fix it. Thank you for this clear and simple solution – it worked!
KarSho says
Simple, Clear and Helped.
Thanks Dude…
zubekk says
thanks dude………..!
Sara says
Hey there! I installed WampServer like you said but when i press phpmyadmin it opens a blank chrome webpage. No database menu or anything like the printscreen you showed. it’s just blank. I’ve tried unistalling and installing again but it remains the same. help!
WPBeginner Support says
Where do you press phpMyAdmin? Try accessing it using the url http://localhost/phpmyadmin/
Admin
Sara says
I pick the WampServer icon out of the taskbar and pick the phpmyadmin just like in your printscreen. No, that didn’t work either. I don’t know what can be wrong!
Sara says
Ok, reboot the system and It opened something on the phpmyadmin but it’s asking me login and password!
Omer says
Hi. Although this article is helpful, however I would like to give some suggestions in improving it. There are some fill in the blanks in this article which makes it difficult to install wordpress.
1. After instructing on installing Wamp Server 2, you immediately jump to phpmyadmin where as you should have told that we need to install mySQL -service- install service and start it. Then we have to install apache – service – install service and start it. Then after making sure that the wamp icon is green head over to the phpmyadmin.
2. After opening the localhost site, you didn’t mention that the username was “root” and password was blank for the database site and jumped immediately on creating database through database tag.
Apart from that it was great effort.
hujat ul islam says
can you help me in installing word press on xampp
sumit says
while installing wamp server it wll shows error again and again.. . error is about MSVC3100.dll file error.. . kindly fix this error
LIsa says
I installed wamp successfully, renamed database, installed wordpress, entered all fields and then once I hit the final “install wordpress”, got a weird blank screen with the wordpress logo at the top. When I hit the “back button” it said wordpress was already installed so I tried entering the username and password and it says it is not found. I tried entering the email I had entered to reset the password and says it isn’t found. I tried using the instructions above for changing the password within the phpmyadmin found the Wp-users file in my database and clicked on pencil icon to edit users and it says “my sql returned an empy result” … help!
Lisa Tomsio says
Never mind … I just deleted wordpress installation, created a new database and started over and it worked. I had unchecked the “allow search engines …” on the wordpress page the first time so I left it checked the second time and it worked fine. Thanks for this information!
Campbell says
I installed WAMServer, as according to your instructions, I chose phpMyadmin, and I encountered this error msg, “HTTP Error 404.0 – Not Found
The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
Detailed Error Information
Module IIS Web Core
Notification MapRequestHandler
Handler StaticFile
Error Code 0x80070002
Requested URL http://localhost:80/phpmyadmin/
Physical Path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\phpmyadmin\
Logon Method Anonymous
Logon User Anonymous”
I installed and re-installed WAMServer, but encounter the same error, how do I proceed from here?
yousef mayeli says
hi there
i installed many times with different options but same problem,it’s icon appears and when i click it to proceed it doesn’t appear anything. i don’t know what should i do.just disappointed
yousef mayeli says
i installed wamp and its icon came on desk but when i click on it doesn’t open i even went to my skype and changed but didn’t affect anything , thanks
. guide me
WPBeginner Support says
Try installing WAMP again.
Admin
sumit says
while installing wamp server it wll shows error again and again.. . error is about MSVC3100.dll file error.. . kindly fix this error
please help meee….
Kevin Salt says
Good article … Thanks.
I don’t want to nit-pick but I think you’re missing a semi-colon in the Skype section …
“and go to Tools » Options. Click on Advanced and then Connections.”
——————-> »
al b says
I seem to be hung up on the http://localhost/mysite/ I get a 404 Not found error.
Al B says
Disregard. I overlooked renaming the WP directory when moving to www. Thank you for this tutorial!
WPBeginner Support says
make sure you have WordPress installed there. Make sure your WAMServer is running.
Admin
Kenia says
I had just installed WAMP and then had no idea how to proceed from there as there is no manual for WAMP. This and the next article on making the wordpress site live are both lifesavers. Seriously. THANK YOU for writing this for beginners, and not assuming we know things we don’t (I see that a lot with experts: they take their knowledge for granted and forget what it’s like to start out and not know things).
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
Martin says
Hello Guys, all done.. no matter what I am doing.. still last step freezes. I see only WP white-blue logo and white unloaded text box. After typing my website I get: “Error establishing a database connection” error. Any ideas? Cheers.
Chris says
Thanks so much for this! Successfully installed. Only problem I ran into was with the wp-config.php file. I needed to open the copy of wp-config-sample.php, make changes on my own and then save. Other than that, easy install.
Amelia says
When I went to click on “create database” in phpmMyAdmin, it said “X No privileges”. What did I do wrong?
Amelia says
No matter, I got that fixed. Now I’m just stuck on the configuration page, info filled out and hit submit but the install wordpress page never comes up!
om gupta says
in my laptop wamp server is not working in the local user account .it work only in administrator account but i want to run wamp server in local user account because i do not have administrator access right pls help me how can i run wamp server in my local user account.
WPBeginner Support says
Without administrator rights it would be difficult for you to run wamp.
Admin
Ratan says
Hi ,
I followed the complete step and dowloaded the WP and started uploading theme . With my first theme only , I got the below message after tryin to install the same :
The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.
Please guide .
Regards ,
WPBeginner Support says
Please check out this guide: How to increase the maximum upload size in WordPress
Admin
utpal says
after install Wampserver i go to phpmyadmin, inthin a login option is here
where i get pass and id
WPBeginner Support says
Try root for username and leave password blank.
Admin
Tony Leary says
Same problem – that works. Thanks.
Alan says
Hello again,
Per my last comment, I think I figured it out. Sorry for the bother.
Alan says
Thanks for the write-up! Wondering if you might have any ideas as to why I cannot create a db from phpmyadmin? After clicking “databases” to create a db, I get a “loading” message for quite some time, then that disappears & nothing…
The same occurs no matter which tab I select in the phpmyadmin dash. Been Googling for over an hour & I haven’t been able to find a solution. Thanks again!
WPBeginner Support says
Try uninstalling and then reinstalling WAMP server. If that does not help you can also install XAMPP.
Admin
Maureen says
Hi Guys! Step by Step Wonderful! Installed WAMP successfully, set up database, downloaded wp with no problem Sucess! now log in… user name or password invalid… press here to have password sent via email… i receive this message “The e-mail could not be sent.
Possible reason: your host may have disabled the mail() function.” any help is appreciated!
WPBeginner Support says
Check out our guide on how to reset a WordPress password from phpMyAdmin
Admin