How to install WordPress locally?

WordPress gives youeverything you need to start your own business and create an originaland professional looking website.

It’s easy andefficient which is why millions of people around the world depend onit. Ifyou want to avoid domain and web hosting costs while you are buildingthe site, the best way to get started is by installing WordPress onyour local computer. In this article wewill provide a step-by-step guide on how this can be done.

Howto Install WordPress locally?

The installationprocess can be quite simple. Keep in mind that you cannot installWordPress directly onto your computer before following these steps:

- Download andinstall XAMPP serversoftware

- Create adatabase

- DownloadWordPress from wordpress.org/latest.zip

- InstallWordPress

XAMPP server

In order to startthe installation,the first thing you need is a server software where you can createthe localhost environment for your website. In our case we will beusing XAMPP – a free open source cross platform server. What XAMPPessentially does is deploy a web server and a mysql server on yourcomputer, as if it was a server. WordPress needs a web server and amysql server to run!

You can download itHERE,there are versions available for all operating systems and PHPversions.

After opening thefile, the setup wizard will guide you trough the installation process.

Select a folderwhere you wish to install the XAMPP application:

Click Nextand wait for the installation to be completed.

Click on ManageServers where you will see 3 services services:

Click on My SQLDatabase. If it’s on status Stopped simply click onactivate to initiate it.

Createa database

Your website willnow need a database where you can save all of the data.

Goto localhost/phpmyadminonyour browser. Click on Newand fill out the name. Finish the process with Create.

DownloadingWordPress

Nextstep is downloading WordPress from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzipping the downloaded file.

Goto the XAMPP directory and open htdocsfolder where you need to move the unzipped files.

Typein localhost/wordpressinyour browser. You should see the following page:

Clickon Let’sgo.

Here you need to enter the newly created database details.
Database Name – This should be the name of the database you just created.

Username – This should be set to root by default, unless you changed it earlier.

Password – This should be left empty by default, unless you changed it before
initiating the MySQL instance.

Database Host – This should be set to localhos

Table Prefix – Can be set to wp

Once all the above are set, click on Submit

The next page will require for you to fill out a title, username, password, and email in order to complete the installation process.
Click on Install WordPress.

Thenext page will require for you to fill out a title, username,password, and email in order to complete the installation process.Clickon InstallWordPress.