Did you know that you can install WordPress on your own Windows computer for learning and testing? Working with WordPress for Windows is a great way to test plugins, updates, and other website changes before pushing them live to your audience. In this article, we’ll show you how to install WordPress locally using WAMP.
The process of installing WordPress on your personal computer is also known as setting up a local server environment or localhost. Often theme designers and plugin developers install WordPress on a local server environment to speed up their development process.
It’s a good idea to use WordPress for Windows in order to test any major changes to your site. This way you can catch and fix any issues before they affect your audience.
Note: If you install WordPress locally on Windows, then the only person who can see that site is you. If you want to create a WordPress blog 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 install WordPress.
Having that said, let’s take a look at how to install WordPress on localhost using WAMP.
What is WAMP?
WAMP, also called WampServer, is a compilation of Apache web server, PHP and MySQL bundled for Windows computers. You need WAMP to setup your own local server environment and install WordPress on Windows. There are other clients for Windows such as XAMPP, but we use and recommend WAMP. It is free and easy to use.
Installing WampServer on your PC
The first thing you need to do is go to the WampServer website and download the latest WampServer. You will be presented with various options on their download page. Simply choose the one that applies to your Windows (64-bit or 32-bit). When in doubt, select the 32-bit version because it will also work on 64-bit versions of Windows.
Once you have downloaded WampServer, run the installation program and carefully follow on-screen instructions.
At one point during the installation, WampServer will ask for the location of the default web browser.
By default it will use Internet Explorer, but you can change that to Google Chrome or Firefox by locating the browser in Program Files.
Once you are done with the installation, launch WampServer.
Setting Up a Database for WordPress
Next, you’ll need to create a blank MySQL database WordPress can use.
WampServer comes with phpMyAdmin, a web based application to manage MySQL databases. Click on the Wampserver icon in windows taskbar and then click on phpmyadmin.
The phpMyAdmin login screen will open in a new browser window. By default, the Username will be root, and you can leave the password field blank.
Once logged in, click on Databases in phpmMyAdmin to create a new database for WordPress. You will be asked to choose a name for your database (we named ours test_db). After that click on the Create button.
Installing WordPress on Windows with WAMP
The next step is to install WordPress. You will need to download a copy of WordPress from WordPress.org. Go ahead and extract the zip file and copy the wordpress folder.
After that, you need to navigate to the folder where you installed WAMP.
In our tutorial, we installed it 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, wpbeginner, 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 our wordpress directory to mysite.
Now open your web browser and go to http://localhost/mysite/
The WordPress database setup will start automatically. First it will ask you to select your language. After that it will show you some information about setting up your database. Click the Let’s Go button when you’re ready.
On the next screen, you’ll need to provide your database information. The database name will be the one that you entered in the last step. In our case, we called it test_db.
Your default database username will be root and you can leave the password blank.
Next, click on the submit button and WordPress will create a configuration file for you.
After this you will see a screen informing you that WordPress has successfully connected to your database, and you can proceed with the installation.
Go ahead and click the Run the install button.
On the next screen, you can fill out the installation form. You need to provide a title for your website, choose an admin username / password, and provide admin email address.
Once you’re ready, press the Install WordPress button.
WordPress will quickly run the installation and create database tables. Once done, you will see a success message after the installation is complete.
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.
Below are some additional notes that might help.
Troubleshooting WAMP Skype Error
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. 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.
Enabling Pretty Permalinks in WAMP
Pretty permalinks will not work by default on your local server environment. All your URLs will look like localhost/mysite/?p=18. If you go to Settings » Permalinks and use one of the other options, then it will show you “page not found” errors. We have already written about a solution here that will show you how to enable custom permalinks in WAMP.
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.
We hope that this article helped you install WordPress on your Windows computer using WAMP. Having a local server environment is great for learning and testing purposes.
Remember, if you want to start a blog for other people to see, then you do not need to install WordPress on your computer. You need to install WordPress on a web hosting provider.
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.
thank you for this article
i thought this was to install WordPress as an app on windows not knowing its just another way of creating a WordPress site. buh i have to say that its really interesting and i learn’t something new and the whole process went well..(thumbs up)
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This has made my day. Thank you!
Oh!! you are awesome!! thank you very much
Thanku very much it was very helpful.
What if you already have a WordPress account and site but you’re still required to fill in the installation form?
Very helpful article, but when I got to setting up a database for WordPress and clicked on phpmyadmin as instructed, it opened up a localhost page with no content. Can you help please?
Regards,
Everything installed correctly and I set up a practice web page. After working on it for awhile I left it for several days. When I attempted to log in to the WP admin site for the test web page, it wouldn’t recognize my password. Any ideas on why this happened or how to recover/reset the password?
Thanks!
thank you very much for this perfect tutorial….all installin done…..now will try the creation
Everything worked fantastic. Until I tried to upload the Divy theme and DivyBuilder plugin.
Received this message for both: The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.
What to do? Any advice?
awesome post,
worked like clockwork,
thanks so much for this great post.
Tom
your tutorial was amazing before this tutorial i didnt know about even how to download wordpress on local host after that i am able to download and the main thing is that i am able and got expert in designing a professional website by wordpress thanksss aloot u r doing good job God bless you
Followed directions and I am getting a
“No webpage was found for the web address:
http://localhost/phpmyadmin/Search Google for localhost phpmyadmin
HTTP ERROR 404
error.”
any ideas?
This problem is fixed.
Had to change the port listeners in Apache httpd.conf to port 8080.
There are 3 listeners to change.
Also must change the port preference in >Tools>Use a port other than 80.
Once clicked, it will automatically change it to 8080, or whatever port you have changed to. I suggest using 8080.
Hope this helps!
thanks! that helped me. you coul have also mentioned that the tools is accessed by right clicking the icon!
easy to follow the instruction, my test site on my desktop was up and running in 15 min. Thanks
Hi Bala,
Glad to hear that
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After Wamp installed I attempted to open phpMyAdmin and received this message in Chrome: This localhost page can’t be found
No webpage was found for the web address:
http://localhost/phpmyadminHTTP ERROR 404
try changing the port in Apache.
I am having this same error, any solutions yet please
It was very helpfull… The steps and links mentioned in the article are perfect….
Thank you
Hello guys, great job!
I followed your advice step by step up to this point: Now open your web browser and go to http://localhost/mysite/
The WordPress database setup will start automatically.
Although the http://localhost/mysite/ seems ok and shows that
ndex of /mysite
[ICO] Name Last modified Size Description
[PARENTDIR] Parent Directory –
[DIR] __MACOSX/ 2017-03-11 22:45 –
[DIR] betheme-premium-word..> 2017-03-11 22:45 –
Apache/2.4.23 (Win32) PHP/5.6.25 Server at localhost Port 80
WordPress itself doesn’t start automatically so now i am stuck here.
Any suggestions?
Thank you so much in advance!
BR,
Eirini
I am having the same issue.
Any ideas?
I’m also getting the same issue…
Really useful tutorial, exactly what i was looking for, thank you very much
Fantastic tutorial and so easy to follow.
Now to create my test website!!
Thanks
Can I lift a WordPress site I already have, along with its theme, widgets etc, and put that onto my local computer and then process that WordPress website into another theme. My main reason for having an interest in this is that when I tried to migrate my WordPress site to a new theme it went wrong. Thankfully I had backed it up and so I could just do a restore. But I would like to move the content into a different theme.
Hi Reg,
Yes, you can. This is one of the main reasons people install WordPress on their computers to work on their themes before it goes live. Please see our guide on how to move a live WordPress site to local server
Thank you so much for the good work. it was easy and straight to the point. More grease to your elbow
Fantastic guide. Simple and easy to follow. I now have a test WP site. Many thanks
I solved my problems!
Note that my first problem was that when copying wordpress into wamp, I only copied wp-admin and not the entire wordpress folder.
The second problem (“Error establishing connection”) was the the form had auto-filled a password (“Password”) and so was actually not blank.
I am receiving the following error message:
“Error establishing a database connection”
Any advice on correcting this?
I am trying to upload a new theme from a zip file and keep getting this error “The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.” I opened the php.ini from within Wampserver php tools and changed it to 25MB but still same error. Please help
Thank you for this article. Very helpful and informational!
We want to build a WordPress-based Intranet. Is this the process for installing WordPress on a local server first, then using the All-In-One Intranet plugin after?
I don’t have WAMP or anything like that, but I have apache, php and mysql installed and it worked for development like that for a while already and it works fine, but when I am trying to install WordPress 4.7.2 on step 2 i get the HTTP 500 status.
The 127.0.0.1 page isn’t working
127.0.0.1 is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500
I have PHP 7.0.8.
Any thoughts?
This was helpful. But i have a problem. Anytime i tried access my dashboard (wp-admin). There is always a note. It says “Sorry you are not allowed to access this page”. I need your help to ratify the situation. Please
Hi Collins,
First, make sure you are accessing /wp-admin/ and not a page inside wp-admin like /wp-admin/some-page.php. If the problem persists, then follow our WordPress troubleshooting guide to figure out whats causing the issue and how to fix it.
Great Tutorial, but i have a quick question.
How would i set up a local copy of a wordpress site from a backup? ive offered to help with someones site and i want to install a copy locally which will include a ‘full’ site, webpages and database, to help make the development alot quicker than just uploading stuff to the online test server every time.
This was a great help
Thank you
When I click on phpMyAdmin, it asks for a username and password. Where do I get this information from?
Thank you.
Pedro
Hi Pedro,
You can get this information your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard.
Where does the installation program look for VCRUNTIME140.dll? I have it on my computer but the program won’t start because that .dll is not installed.
hello guys, i find it hard to download the wordpress any one with a clue pls.
I’m stuck here-
Installing WordPress on Windows with WAMP
Download a copy of WordPress from WordPress.org. Extract the zip file and copy the wordpress folder. Go to C:\wamp\www (when I paste this to a browser nothing happens) and paste wordpress folder there. You can rename the wordpress folder to anything you want for example mysite, wpbeginner, etc.
I hope you solved you problem by now, but in case anyone else has an issue here’s what happened.
I highly recommend against using a browser to access that. That is specifically storage space on your computer. If you go to My Computer you should see Local Disk (C:). This is what the C:\ means. When you open the disk (by double-clicking on it) you should see a list of folders such as Program Files, Windows, and wamp. Open the wamp folder and look for a folder named www. Open that folder, and then paste the wordpress folder in it.
thanks a lottttttttt. Now I can make my web. I Love you guys.
I don’t know why people can’t help, it does not matter I’m glad I found you.
Hi Martina,
You are welcome
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HI, I’ve installed WAMP64 and WordPress. I can add pages in WordPress but cannot edit them. I can create new pages and change themes but cannot add or edit any page content. Is this possible?
I have a stupid question. I took a beginners wordpress class which totally sucked!
Anyway, they had me use Microsoft webmatrix instead of WAMP. The webmatrix does not work correctly. Could I install WAMP or must I now use MS webmatrix? If I do this, will I use the project I was working on for the class?
I totally lost….
Thanks
when i click phpmyadmin its shows that im not connected on the browser , any help guys ?
My WAMP install went smoothly and created two databases correctly. There are 2 databases and 2 config.php files in my wordpress website. The path for both databases are example.com/httpdocs/wp-config.php and example.com/httpdocs/wordpress/wp-config.php. Both databases have different DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, butDB_HOST (IP address) is same.I install httpdocs folder into the www folder properly. I enter db_host in both databases are localhost.
Now when i view the site and open localhost/wordpress/wp-admin, the error is…
This site can’t be reached…localhost refused to connect…ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED
Thanks Sir!! You made it very clear and simple.. I have been trying to do this from a long time. But today I found this article and did it in a flash. I’m really grateful. Thanks.
Glad you found it helpful
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You guys are the best..though I had issues installing my WAMPserver but I managed to fix it. Sincerely this article helped me as i was told by a friend to pay thousands of Nigeria naira before he can help me. More of these guys!!!
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You made it very clear and simple to follow. Worked a treat and I didn’t even need to watch a video online. Many thanks.
Thanks for the effort you put into this tutorial. Finally my first wordpress test blog is running on wamp.
My WAMP instal went smoothly (updated the Visial C++ packages) ..created a database called wordpress
My wordpress instal into the www folder went smoothly
When I open localhost/wordpress/wp=admin I see that the Twenty Fifteen theme is active.
But wen I view the site or sample page….I don’t see any evidence that the css of the theme has been invoked…just a very plain looking page
Yes, this is all new to me….I’ve missed something obvious I hope…what did I miss doing>
how to test vaultpress backup in the local wordpress?
hi, may i know how could actually installl phpMyAdmin? Where to get username and password to login in. Thanks
Can I create a wp website while offline?
Yes you can. However, you may need an internet connection to get help or check out tutorials.
Hello, just thought i’d let you know that in order to access the localhost you can use root as user and leave the password field in blank.
Thanx for this article
Thanks for this instructions and tutorials on how to install wordpress using wamp. It helps a lot for us beginners.
Hey mikmoken,
Glad you found it useful
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Thanks guys at long last and 70 years of age I’ve achieved it! Thanks to you guys cheers!!
Hey @MeIR,
We are glad you found it useful
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