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.
Leone Agoya
Thank you for this article. Very helpful and it works.
Vivek Sharma
Best tuts awesome explanation , best website
WPBeginner Support
Hey Vivek, glad you like our website. Don’t forget to join us on Twitter for more WordPress tips and tutorials.
Admin
Stephen Rea
Thank you… It feels great to be learning new powers.. WP and WAMP now on desktop… Now to learn WP !
Dave
Great walk through!!! Thanks for the assist!!!
Elaine
Wow, thanks sooo much. It helped me a lot.
Manuel
Absolutely outstanding! Had an issue with C++ 13 & 14 but it was so well explained and pointed me in the right direction that I was able to solve it and now I have a development Wordpress environment on my Window 10 laptop. THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Jonathan
Do I need have basic in knowledge coreldraw and or photoshop to become a professional web designer.
Thanks for your sincere answer.
WPBeginner Support
It will help greatly. Specially Photoshop.
Admin
Karthik
Really useful and thanks very much..:)
Michael Gyori
Greaet tutorial, thanks!
One suggestion. Mention the Skype Port 80 issue right at the point when it would be encountered in your tutorial. Having it mentioned at the end was not helpful because I already spent considerable time trying to figure out what was going wrong. A simple note saying: “If your browser screen is blank when selecting phpMyAdmin, then you may have a conflict with Skype (see below).”
mark k
Thx for the tutorial – ran in to problems starting WAMP (blank page on localhost/phpmyadmin), on wins 10 www service was running stopping apache, so ran services.msc and stopped that.
Only other problem happened when wp tried to create config – by default it self completes txtBox with “password” so just remember to delete it. simple fix but had me stumped for 2 mins.
once again thx
Frank George
please i need urgent help as i would love to move my site live….i am running wordpress through my local host using Microsoft web matrix through IIS7…how do i do it please…i need help urgently!
ahmed
Hi
I have plant to installed WordPress on wamp windows based server.who is right person to contact if I find any problem. Please let me know.
Thanks in advance.
Ahmed
vijay
i installed wordpress using bitnami software.
i also tried using wamp both are awesome.
Johari
Thank you for simplifying the manual. The steps you provided are easy to follow. Keep posting great articles!
cornel
great job , thank you
Vikash Gupta
Thank you for providing nice guidance.
It worked for me excellently.
Ahmed
When i tried to start wamp, its giving me an error that vcruntime.dll is missing… Please any solution?
Mayur
After clicking on phpmyadmin showing error.
The webpage cannot be found
Plz help me..
Ruben Tahir
Trying to run phpMyAdmin for the first time, I am prompt to enter user name and password. I suppose there must be a default user name a password. What are they or how to setup my own?
Ruben Tahir
Just found out by simply googling. the username is root and no password.
You should mention that in your tutorial.
J Robinson
My WAMP-64 was installed some time ago on my D: drive. I just added WP. When I point the browser to http://localhost/wp-admin/ (changed the WP folder name back), I get:
Warning: require_once(D:\wamp64\www/wp-load.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in D:\wamp64\www\wp-admin\admin.php on line 31
and
Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required ‘D:\wamp64\www/wp-load.php’ (include_path=’.;C:\php\pear’) in D:\wamp64\www\wp-admin\admin.php on line 31
Should I just delete everything and start over, or is there a configuration to fix this?
manjeet kaur
hi sir I want to learn word press .can I learnt it online ? my future depend on it
Dipankar Ray
Thanks for the step by step info. However, I am not sure how to create a Database as very time I click on the Wamp icon and then phpMyAdmin, I am getting a blank new browser window with ‘http://localhost/phpmyadmin as the URL..
Therefore,I can’t proceed to the next step which is to click on Databases and thereafter create a database for Wordpress.
Please help and point out if I am not on the right path.
Thanks.
WPBeginner Support
Try adding a slash at the end of URL like this:
http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/
Admin
Dipankar Ray
Thanks for your suggestion of using the URL above. I had overcome my previous issue and was able to proceed. However, after that I came across other issues like MySQL errors and decided to uninstall WAMP server from my computer.
By the way, my OS is Windows XP.
Now on trying to re-install after downloading this software I am receiving the following error message. ‘ Aestan Tray Menu has encountered a problem and needs to close.We are sorry for the inconvenience.’. This has happened over three times. Thanks.
Please help as I am not sure where I am erring.
WP Complete Beginner
Pretty sure that you have Microsoft IIS running which is causing this mess. Happened to me. Go to the WAMP > Apache > Test Port 80 option.
It will blurt out something like Port 80 wrong service is running. The real service that’s running is MS IIS X.0
Launch cmd as admin and type iisrest / stop in the command line.
Then go to WAMP > Apache > Service Administration > Install Service
Finally, Then go to WAMP > Apache > Service Administration > Start Service.
It should work! Let me know if my comment helped you.
Jun Allan
Thank you!
Fawaz
Thanks a lot. Had to fix some errors and finally it worked. Very nice guide through. Already bookmarked.
Vassilis
How do I establish 2 or more sites on the same server (if possible)?
Thanks in advance
Krishna
Really useful and worked perfectly. Thank you so much..
ART
I’m an advanced beginner using Vista SP2. I think I am running both 32 and 64 bit. I had a big problem with VCRunTime140.dll missing error. First I tried Wamp 64bit, then Wamp newest 32bit, then confirmed VCRunTime140.dll was installed in my Windows\System32 folder and confirmed my updated Firefox was in the Programs(86) folder. Still had the *.dll missing error. Then tried the older Wamp 32bit. Problem solved.
2 more errors I made were to copy the WordPress folder without extracting it. Then deleted where I copied it and properly extracted it before copying. But I copied it to Wamp instead of Wamp\www
After I deleted it from the second wrong location, I copied it to Wamp\www and things worked great after that.
Hopefully a little helpful to call out some beginner errors to prevent others’ headaches.
Visata requires Wamp Version 2.5
Recently Wamp and Google Maps versions or settings have changed. Vista SP2 cannot run the latest Wamp, Stay with Version 2.5, specifically MYSQL 5.6.XX (I found xx=17 but some places say xx=26 is available.)
Thank you so much for these instructions!! Other lists of instructions are very difficult and not very useful.
Vianney kirumira
Thank u so much guyz. really you have made my day!. At least
Iris India
Excellent ! Thanks for your step by step instructions
Sid
Probably being dumb, but how do i see my web site project again and work on my site? To open it again I selected the ‘wamp’ icon, it opened a dashboard where I could see my project folder, I double clicked to open it, but instead of my site I got a page that said error my page cannot be found. I could not see the wordpress dashboard when I selected the wamp icon or any option to open wordpress. Can you please advise? Thanks.
Michael
Type localhost/site-name in your browser. To view your admin type localhost/sitename/wp-admin
Nicko Johnson
After clicking on phpMyAdmin its saying the site can’t be reached. What could be wrong?
Sid
Just want to say thank you! I have never done anything like this before and your steps were very useful and easy to follow
NOURI
when I try to install WAMP, it gives me error msg
JP
I followed instructions, yet when I attempt to open the browser with:
http://localhost/mysite/
I get a 404 file not found. Any hints as to what is going on? Thanks.
WPBeginner Support
The mysite directory is not found in the WAMP web folder.
Admin
kittyket
and what do you have to do then?
WPBeginner Support
It depends. May be a user has installed WordPress in their htdocs or www directory. Or may be they created the mysite folder elsewhere and WAMP can’t find it in the www directory.
Maya
Struggled a bit with Wampserver installation but finally everything went smooth. Thanks for the step-by-step explanation.
WPBeginner Support
Glad you found it helpful.
Admin
puri shanker dhobi
how to open a php template in wordpess using wamp server
Gold
Thank you so much!!!! You’re all shades of amazing.. This tutorial was super super helpful. Everything worked perfectly. Thanks again!
veena
after wp_config file it is sudenly showing following error.
Error establishing a database connection
I have created a database , mysql , apache , php are all working, how find out solution for this?
Suzi
I was getting the same error because I was not using a password, and I forgot to remove the word “password” where it asks for MySQL password on the previous page!
Erling Bergan
I have followed the instructions, and everything has looked fine. I have clicked on the Wampserver icon, and then clicked on phpmyadmin. A browser window opens, but there is no phpMyAdmin in it. The web page is blank. Could you give me a hint of what may be wrong?
Suzi
I was having the same issues .. there are so many reasons that this could be happening. did you follow ALL of the instructions, including the VISUAL downloads and skype and port 80 issues? I got to the point where my icon was green and still would not work, so I uninstalled it and used the 32 bit version even though I have 64 bit on my pc. Then it worked!
Jimmy Karago
Thanks so much was lost but, this helped me a lot
soheib
thank youuuuu really helped!!!!!!!!
Mxolisi Maphosa
Thank you very much, this helped me so much.
ana
Great tutorial! It really helped me. I’ll be following you.
Jeremy
Hi, what if I have an instance of Acquia Dev Desktop (Drupal) on my local machine? Installing this wont be an issue?
Thanks
Paul Gomez
Hello, right now I am trying to set the WAMPserver, but in i see 4 versions 2 for 32 Bits and 2 for 64 Bits. Which of the two versions should I pick? I am a bit confused what the difference is from the 2 versions. I see the Apache, PHP and MySQL versions are different but I am not sure.
WPBeginner Support
They are basically the same. Most modern computers have 64bit architecture. If you are using an older machine then try 32bit version, other wise try 64bit version.
Admin
Paul Gomez
I understand, but that was not my question. Please read my original message.
Jason
This has to do with the size of the data types the processor can handle and the size of the memory addresses it can hold in it’s register. 64 bit applications can utilize more RAM because they can utilize exponentially more of those addresses, but unless you are writing your own ‘big data’ type of applications or using plugins that need the extra memory then it’s almost completely irrelevant to you. You won’t notice the difference either way, so just pick one.
Phil
Any answer on this? I have the same question. I know I want 64 bit, but what PHP version should I choose?
HV
The two 64bit installs have different software versions.
Apache : 2.4.17 MySQL : 5.7.9 PHP : 5.6.16 on one
and Apache : 2.4.9 MySQL : 5.6.17 PHP : 5.5.12 on the other.
The two 32 bit versions are similar
They are giving you options in case your development environment
needs a particular version of Apache, PHP or MySQL
Prasad Sagare
After clicking on phpmyadmin show error.
IIS 8.5 detailed error-404 not found.
Plz help me..
David
I get the same error 404 page when clicking phpmyadmin. Any resolution here? I do not have skype on this computer.
Luc
After numerous failures, this instruction worked just fine! Thanks.
dicegeorge
Thanks,
that worked without a hitch,
i’ve been wanting to do this for ages!
Michael
It is not clear to me whether I must set up a database first, or can I simply import my current live back up of the blog, and then work on it locally.
I sort of expected to import the existing word press blog to my local hard disk, and the import process will then create all the tables and the databases.
Thanks
Ron
Thank you. This great page of info REALLY helped !!!
Prashant Menase
Thank you for easy steps!!! Helped me lot! keep adding………….