How To Install WordPress Locally on Windows Computer Using WAMP

When it comes about customizing of the WordPress, be it the design or new functionality, it requires plenty of testings with trials & errors methods. Performing such trials directly into the web server takes a lot of time due to the slow internet connection. Even, it happens to be costly if you’re in a limited bandwidth plan. You can install WordPress locally to do all such testings at your local computer. In other words, installing the WordPress locally is nothing but creating a local server environment i.e localhost at your personal computer.
The localhost is widely used by the theme designers/plugin developers to speed up the process. If you are a normal user, you can use the local server to test themes or plugins before you make them live at your real website or blog. Even, the bloggers can use the local server to re-edit the older posts at their blog. In this article, we will guide you how to install WordPress locally on Windows operating system using Wamp.
What is WAMP?
WAMP is a combined package of Apache web server, PHP and MySQL for the Windows system. Wamp creates the environment at your local Windows computer to install the WordPress on it.

How to install Wampserver on Windows PC

Download the latest version of WAMP from their official page. There, you can see plenty of options for the downloads. Choose the one which suits with your Windows version (32-bit or 64-bit). If you are not so sure, simple download the 32-bit version of WAMP as it also works on 64-bit Windows operating system.
After downloading the setup file, simply run it and follow the onscreen instruction. It will ask to choose the default browser during the installation process. Choose either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome by locating them from the program files folder.
Once completed, launch the Wampserver.

Creating a Database for WordPress

Basically, the WordPress uses the MySQL data bases and there is a web-based application called as phpMyAdmin which is included into the Wamp package. You can run it at your localhost by clicking the Wampserver icon from the taskbar and then clicking on the phpMyAdmin.

The phpmyadmin will open in a new window. Click on Database in the phpmyadmin windows. Choose a name for your database and click the Create button. This will create the database.

Install WordPress locally using Wampserver

Go to the official website of WordPress and download a copy of WordPress. The downloaded file is a zip file. So, extract it. It extracted into a folder wordpress. Open the wordpress folder and copy the content. Now, go to C:>wamp>www, create folder, give a suitable name (remember that this folder name will be used in your local site url). For instance, we give the name as mylocalsite. Paste the copied content into the mylocalsite folder.
Now, type http://localhost/mylocalsite/ at your browser’s address bar and hit enter. This automatically tries to initiate the WordPress installation process and informs you with a message that the wp-config.php file is missing. Click on ‘Create a Configuration File’ button.

In the next step, you need to give your database details. Type the database name that you created earlier in the phpmyadmin. The database username for localhost is root by default and the password is blank. So, put root as user name and keep the password field blank. Now, clicking on the Submit button will create the configuration file.

The next screen informs that you have successfully created the configuration file and you are ready to install WordPress at your local computer. Click on the ‘Run the install’ button.

In the next step you need to give your site related information like site title, username and password for the admin, the admin email address. Once done, press the Install WordPress button.

The WordPress will complete the installation process in a moment and you will get a success message. You can now log into your local WordPress site any by using this url: http://localhost/mylocalsite/wp-login.php.
Now, you can test the WordPress themes and plugins at your local WordPress website before you make them live at the web server.

Enabling pretty permalink in Local WordPress

You would get into a problem when opting for the pretty permalink structure in your Local WordPress settings.Changing the permalink settings to one which you prefer can show 404 not found errors for the posts and pages in your localhost. Follow these steps to enable pretty permalink structure into your local WordPress environment.
Click the Wampserver icon from the Windows taskbar and go to Apache > Apache modules. Now, search for rewrite_module in the long list of various modules. Once found, click on it to make it marked with the tick sign.

Now, go to your local WordPress admin panel, click Settings > Permalinks and choose your pretty permalink.

That’s it. Hope this helps you run WordPress at your local computer without having any problem.