After years of building WordPress websites, we’ve learned how important it is to have a local WordPress setup on your computer.
Having WordPress on your personal machine lets you experiment with new features without risking your live site, dive deep into WordPress development, and even build entire websites before they go live. It’s like having a private sandbox for all your WordPress projects.
If you’re a Windows user, there are numerous ways to set up WordPress locally. But we’ve narrowed it down to the two easiest methods. In this guide, we will show you how to easily install WordPress on a Windows computer, no matter which version you’re using.
Why You Should Install WordPress on Windows?
If you’re a Windows user, then installing WordPress locally on your computer offers several benefits.
A local WordPress installation creates a testing environment that doesn’t affect your live website. This setup, often called a local server or localhost, is your personal playground for WordPress.
WordPress developers regularly use local installations for their work. For instance, they may use it to experiment with new plugins or themes or test the site before updating to the Gutenberg block editor.
But it’s not just for the pros. If you’re new to WordPress, a local setup is perfect for learning. You can explore features, test themes and plugins, and experiment freely without worrying about breaking a live site.
It’s important to note that when you install WordPress locally on Windows, only you can see the site. If you want to create a public website, then you’ll need a domain name and web hosting.
Now, technically, you can install WordPress on Windows using XAMPP, and we’ve written a tutorial on it before.
That being said, we’ve found 2 even simpler ways than XAMPP for setting up a local WordPress environment, making them great for beginners or users who need to create a local site quickly. You can click the link below to jump ahead to any method you’re interested in:
Method 1: Install WordPress on Windows Using Studio (Quick and Simple)
For the first method, we will use Studio. It’s a local WordPress software made by Automattic, the company that manages and runs WordPress.com, which is a website builder based on the WordPress software.
We will talk about this method first because it’s much quicker and simpler to follow, making it perfect for complete beginners.
First, you need to open the Studio by WordPress.com website. Then, click on the ‘Download for Windows’ button.
Once you’ve done that, just open the downloaded file to start the installation.
A popup window will now appear, showing you that the application is being installed.
With that done, you can add your first site.
To do this, just enter your new local WordPress site name and click ‘Add site.’ You can name the site however you like so long as it helps you easily identify it.
You should now see your local WordPress site dashboard.
To access your WordPress dashboard and edit your website, just click the ‘Start’ button at the top right corner. This will make your local website accessible to you on your computer.
Once the ‘Start’ button changes to ‘Running,’ you can click on the ‘WP Admin’ link at the top left side of the page.
This will bring you to your local WordPress admin page.
And that’s pretty much it for the setup. Let’s explore the other settings that may be necessary as you build your local website.
As you can see in the ‘Overview’ tab, you can immediately access the WordPress full-site editor menu right from the Studio dashboard. You can also click ‘File explorer’ to open your WordPress website’s folders and files and click on ‘Terminal’ to manage your website using WP-CLI.
If you switch to the ‘Share’ tab, you can log in to your WordPress.com account, clone your local website, and upload it to WordPress.com’s servers. This will temporarily make the cloned site online, which is useful for sharing demo sites with your clients or team members.
At times, you may want to log in to your local website directly through your browser instead of using Studio. In that case, you need to know your wp-admin credentials.
To find them, you can switch to the ‘Settings’ tab and find your WordPress admin username, password, and login URL there.
Another neat feature of Studio is its built-in AI chatbot, which you can communicate with by clicking on the ‘Assistant’ button.
Here, you can ask Studio for help with tasks like updating all your plugins at once, updating your core WordPress version, or creating code for a custom block.
When you’re done working on your local site, just hover over the ‘Running’ button at the top right corner until it says ‘Stop.’
Then, click on the button to stop the website.
One downside of Studio is you cannot configure the WordPress environment to your liking. This means you need to use the PHP version, web server, and database that have been pre-selected for you.
This can be a drawback if you need to test your website or plugin with specific server configurations.
If you require more control over your local WordPress environment or need to match your local setup with a specific live server configuration, then you can check out the next method using Local WP.
Method 2: Install WordPress on Windows Using Local WP (More Customizable)
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, the software will be automatically downloaded into your computer. Otherwise, you can click on the ‘click here’ link to start the download.
Once the file is 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 for 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.
Select the ‘Create a new site’ option and click the ‘Continue’ button. There are also options to create the site from a blueprint or an existing website file, but we’ll go with the first option for the sake of demonstration.
Next, you can enter a name for your local website, like ‘My WordPress Website.’
There are also advanced options where you can enter the local site domain and local site path. By default, the domain will use your website title but separated with dashes.
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.
Local WP offers the latest PHP versions. As for the web server, you can choose between Nginx or Apache. You can also select between MySQL or MariaDB for the databases.
Do note that some PHP, web server, and database versions require downloading some dependencies for them to work properly.
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.
Other than that, there is an advanced option where the software will ask whether you have a WordPress multisite network. If not, just click ‘No.’
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 on the ‘Start site’ button at the top right corner.
Next, click on the ‘WP Admin’ button, and 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.
Pro Tip: If you want to skip the login process, you can enable a one-click admin login in Local WP.
To do this, just go back to the Local WP dashboard and toggle the ‘One-click admin’ button until it says ‘On.’ Then, in the dropdown menu, select the admin user that can use this one-click login feature.
Alternative: Use WordPress Playground to Test Themes, Plugins, and More
WordPress Playground is an innovative tool that lets you experiment with WordPress directly in your web browser. It’s a virtual sandbox where you can try new WordPress themes, plugins, and features without affecting any real website.
WordPress Playground differs from a local WordPress environment in several key ways.
First, it doesn’t require installation on your computer and resets after each use, unlike permanent local setups. You can access it from any device with a browser, while local installations are tied to one computer.
While WordPress Playground is ideal for quick tests and learning, a local WordPress environment on your Windows computer offers more flexibility for long-term development projects.
For a detailed walkthrough, check out our guide on how to use WordPress Playground in your browser.
I’ve Installed WordPress on My Windows Computer, What Now?
Now that you have WordPress on your computer, here are some things you can do:
- Learn basic WordPress tips and tricks to use your site better.
- Try different WordPress themes to see how your site can look.
- Install and test must-have WordPress plugins to add new features to your site.
- Learn how to fix common WordPress errors on your own.
- Try different drag-and-drop page builders to make your site look nice.
- Learn how to reset the WordPress admin password on localhost to recover access to your site.
- Set up automated workflows to make managing your site easier.
- Learn about WordPress security to keep your site safe from hackers.
- Move your local WordPress site to a live server when you’re ready to share it with everyone.
We hope this article helped you learn how to install WordPress locally on a Windows computer. You may also want to see our article on how to install WordPress locally on a Mac computer and our ultimate guide to creating a WordPress staging site.
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.
Mituka
Awesome Stuff. Worked like a charm.
WPBeginner Support
Glad our guide could help
Admin
Noreen Naz
Great.. but i want to make another data base what should i do?? should i register again?? reply as soon as possible please
WPBeginner Support
For making another database for your local install, rather than visiting localhost/yoursite you would go to localhost which should have a link in the bottom left to get you to phpMyadmin
Admin
Asadullah
Great Tutorials:
My eyes have been opened.
That was all,which I was looking for.
Best….
WPBeginner Support
Glad our article could help
Admin
pawan
nice article
WPBeginner Support
Glad you like our article
Admin
Jan
Great tutorial. Worked straightaway – thanks!
Steve
Hey guys.
Thought you should know that your tutorials are being used by a scammer on YouTube to gain affiliate commissions from Bluehost.
Did you upload this video onto this channel? –
WPBeginner Support
Hi Steve,
No, we did not. They just downloaded and reuploaded it on their channel. Thank you for notifying us.
Admin
Bharat Suneja
Why not use IIS instead of Apache? It’s a native web server on Windows and offers much better functionality and manageability, particularly for Windows users/admins who’s used to managing Windows via the GUI tools, commands and/or PowerShell.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Bharat,
Most users would move their websites to a live server, or create a development environment for a site. Most likely those hosting providers will be running Apache.
Admin
Bob
How much load does running this take on my machine? Could I put on a spare machine on my local network and access it via my LAN?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Bob,
Depends on how fast your machine is. Yes, you can do that but that would require some extra steps to configure your network and server.
Admin
Noz
WaMp is bulky, full of problems and never know when it will break and you lose your databases… never use it.
Sharon Y
This site can’t be reached localhost refused to connect.
Search Google for localhost mysite
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED
Please help!
WPBeginner Support
Hi Sharon,
This means that WAMP is not running Apache. You need to restart it and then retry.
Admin
Sharon Y
I can’t login to localhost/mysite/
Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access /mysite/ on this server.
Apache/2.4.35 (Win64) PHP/7.2.10 Server at localhost Port 80
Please help!
SULAIMAN OLUWO
while installing i received warning message which was not part of the expected actions stated in the WAMP instruction steps above,. It went thus: do you want this programme (WAMP) to make changes to your pc….
Julio
Hi
I followed every step the tutorial said, but when i enter the db info before installing wordpress, i get an “error estabilishing connection to the database”.
WAMP is running ok, apache green, MySQL green, i created the database by accessing PhpMyAdmin, all the info is exactly like written in the tutorial… i searched all over the web and found absolutely nothing related to this error.
Can someone help me out?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Julio,
The only reason you will get this error is when WordPress is unable to connect to your database. You need to check your database settings to make sure they are correct.
Admin
Tracy
I’m trying to upload a theme but when I click to upload the zip file from my computer I get a message saying “the link you followed has expired” please try again.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Tracy,
Most likely, your theme file size is too big and it gets killed during the upload. Please try the steps in our tutorial on increasing file upload size limit in WordPress.
Admin
Hazel Andrews
I’m getting that error as well… brill thanks for the link to follow!
Tanja
Hi, how to start my word press today. I installed it yesterday, using your instruction, but today I cannot find any icon or anything that will help me to start with it
WPBeginner Support
Hi Tanja,
You will first need to start WAMP and after that you will be able to open your site in the browser.
Admin
Henry
Awesome. This worked perfectly. Thanks for sharing
Mike
I want to install Wordpress on my W7 computer for experimental purposes.
But I want to use Wordpress 4.9.1, instead of the latest version.
This is because I have an excellent tutorial that’s based on 4.9.1.
Is this possible?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Mike,
Yes it is possible. You can download the older versions of WordPress from official website and install it following the instructions above.
Admin
Nina
Every time I try to open up Wamp, it keeps giving me this message: “Error: This program can only be installed on versions of Windows designed for the following processor architectures: x64”
My computer is a Windows 7 32-bit operating system and I’ve downloaded both the 62-bit and 32-bit wamp version yet it gives me the same message. It’s so frustrating because I’ve installed Wamp on my computer last year, then uninstalled it this year. Now, I’m trying to install it again and it gives me the same message over and over again. Does anyone know how to fix this? It’s literally driving me nuts. I’ve got a link below of the message if you want to see it:
Aasim Unia
Thank you for sharing ! it worked in first try.
Jim Zapapas
Installed successfully 1st try.
Thank you!
Jordens Cadet
Thanks so much, much better than silent videos on youtube.
Jazz
Thanks a ton for sharing your knowledge with all of us here!
WordPress is installed successfully for me
But, now my skype has stopped…it says MSVCP140.dll missing. How can I fix this without causing any trouble to WordPress and Wamp functioning?
Aniket Thanage
Perfect tutorial…thanks a lot
Lucky
Thanks for this. but do i need to install wordpress again each time I put on my laptop to edit my site or create a new site? pls reply asap. thanks
henry paul
The WampServer site has two versions of the software – 32 BITS or 64 BITS. Click on the version you prefer to download.
Click on “download directly,” and you’ll be taken to the website. The download will automatically start in 5 seconds.
Tristan
Got it working without a hitch! Thank you so much for this. But I have another question:
As a web developer I will be creating multipule websites. If I use local WP to create 1 site, do I have to create a separate DP for each new website? And if I eventually wish to attatch it to a domain/host, is there another tutorial that I can follow that will teach me to do just that? Thank you!!
Chandan
i changed wordpress name to mysite but it shows below error
Further, I tried pasting http;//localhost/wamp64 in my browser, it gives the error 404. Also, I want to build my website locally before I go live. Please assist me.
Chandan
Further, I tried pasting http;//localhost/wamp/mysite but shows error. in my browser, it gives the error 404 with below mentioned
The requested URL /mysite/ was not found on this server.
Apache/2.4.23 (Win32) PHP/5.6.25 Server at localhost Port 80
Rudy
Wow! without any problems Wamp on my pc and after that my website local!
Thank you very much for your time and effort to write this tutorial!
Alhaji ZiC
your guideline perfectly worked for me while installing wampserver and wordpress though it was not easy but i combined persistence and trial and error till i see the end.
A million pounds applause there.
but, please, i have no knowledge on web designing, so, what step can i take to design a good looking and professional website?
kind regard
sahil
Not able to download wampserver from the link.
It says file has been removed.
Please provide the new link.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Sahil,
The link is working. May be it was a temporary error. Please try again.
Admin
kym
Hi, If i want say try out with a Thrive theme and their page builder would it be possible with WAMP?
WPBeginner Support
Hi kym,
Yes you can try it on your local server using WAMP.
Admin
Lyson
Im getting password is wrong.
I need your help guys.
Steve Baer
Thanks for this guide, it was smooth sailing…..everything installed perfectly.
Elliot McClintock
Thank for the tutorial. Everything went smooth in the first attempt.
I have a secondary question: If I want to create a second test website (e.g. mysite2), can I do it within same WAMP64\www folder or would I have to repeat the whole process from start on a separate root folder?
Thanks again.
Muhammad Bilal
there are two methods one is you can use single wordpress for your second website and the second is repeate the same process but the wordpress folder name should be different and database also…
Vegard Svingen
Hoping this will be my breakthrough
Gimel
Thanks a lot for this tutorial, it was extremely helpful. I do however have on issue that is causing me a lot of frustration right now. My wordpress installation is moving extremely slow. it takes about 8 – 10 seconds to perform any action in wordpress. I tried everything i found online, I disabled the cgi_module, I changed localhost to 127.0.0.1 in the wp-config file. I also tried anther solution I found online concerning adding additional code to the wp-config file, nothing works. it’s taking me forever to get anything done. I would deeply appreciate any help I can get on this matter.
Aditya Choudhary
Thank you for this tutorial, this is very helpful for me. Thank you.
Samuel
Thanks for this tutorial, the installation process went smoothly but after installation i tried installing some themes and i activate the themes but they wont take effect please does any body know what i can do about this?
Aika
Hi!, Wondering what to do with this error.
The program can’t start becauseMSVCR110.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.
been reinstalling several times. Thanks in advance!
Robert Wheeler
You need to
1) Uninstall WAMP
2) Install a number of Microsoft C++ Redistributables – do a Google search for this. This will install a number of .DLL files which are needed for WAMP to run.
3) Reinstall WAMP.
I’m not sure why this information is not included with the instructions on how to install WAMP, it is a regular error.
Margie
FANTASTIC! Went off without a hitch! Had trouble with XAMPP install, so decided to try WAMP instead, and your instructions had me up and running in no time…thanks sooo much!
Eddie
Hi,
I pasted the wordpress folder into the C:\wamp64\www folder
and renamed the wordpress folder to mysite. I opened the web browser and typed the url on my browser, http://localhost/mysite/.
The browser shows a blank page so I can’t start the wordpress install. I have changed the local host to 8080 via the Wamp tool menu. I can’t seem to go further, can someone advise me. Thanks
Trevor
If you changed the WAMP (apache) port, you’ll have to include the port number in the URL. ex: localhost:8080/mysite/
Eddie
Hi Trevor,
Thanks it worked.
Regards
Eddie
Eddie
Hi Trevor, Thanks it worked.
Regards
Eddie
Gaz Davies
Can I ask why you would change the port on a local host?
thanks
M.
my local wordpress is settings are for http, while my current online version is set at https. if i use duplicator, will i end up having http and have to force http to https redirect?
Sunday Adeniran
WAMP could not fully function on my 2010 hp laptop. It complained of missing file MSVCR120.dll. Only one service in running. Can somebody help me?
Sunday Adeniran
I was able to solve this problem by installing a lower version of WAMP server (2.5). It then worked well. Many thanks.
Victor Escobar
Great tutorial, but when I installed WamServer 3.1.0, I get a slightly different tools menu, without phpMyAdmin being listed. The following is what’s on the Tools menu, under the Tools section:
– Restart DNS
– Check httpd.conf syntax
– Check state of services
– Check DNS search order
– Check Compiler VC, compatibility and ini files
– Show VirtualHost examined by Apache
– Show Apache loaded modules
– Delete unused versions
The other sections have to do with assigning port numbers and purging logs.
Jeremiah
To access phpMyAdmin, left-click on the WampServer icon in windows taskbar, and you will find it on the list that will appear, but if you right-click on the icon instead, you will get the list you mentioned earlier.
Sheraz Ali
One of the best guide. it works smoothly.
justine
Many thanks – Very easy to follow and worked like a dream
Sunday
Finally, guys. I got it done. Simple but stylish. Many thanks to our friends in WPbeginner.
joran
sir there was an error ..MSVR.dll what is the solution of this error sir? tnx
Sunday Adeniran
It was the same error I got. So what is the solution?
Nanya
whoa! It was a success. Well detailed. I love this, I had no problem at all, it’s very comprehensive. Thanks a lot.