How to Install WordPress on Windows 10 [5 Steps]

While Google connects the massive internet, WordPress is the one that helps run it. In 2018, WordPress helped to run more than 30 percent of all the sites on the internet.

It’s also worth noting that since WordPress is a Content Management System and considering only CMS based sites, it runs more than half of the internet.

Impressive, right?

And…

It is growing at an almost consistent rate (2.4 percent) ever since we have started keeping track. That was around 2011. It looks like there is no stopping it in the near future too.

This growing popularity means a lot of people want to get into using WordPress either

• As developers, or
• They simply want to use it to host their site

Whatever the case may be, WordPress is attractive to both kinds of markets and it’s easy to get into.

The best way to get used to new technology is to get your hands dirty playing with it on your home turf. In the case of WordPress, this means getting it installed on your own computer and running your sites on it, practicing and perfecting your craft, without spending a dime. Yes, you read that right, you don’t need to buy a domain and hosting to practice running your WordPress site; you can do it on your Windows 10, for free.

It sounds a bit more technical than it actually is, but we assure you it is a simple process and we will guide you through it like a walk in the park.

For different kinds of users, we will cover two different kinds of installations… starting with the easiest one and ending with the one where you can even control the servers hosting the site.

First up… the simplest of them all…

1.    InstantWP

Five-Step Installation

InstantWP is free software that takes out the hassle of installing and configuring a server on Windows besides the WordPress site and takes you straight to the good stuff. It has a general public license and is supported on almost all Windows platforms, as well as MacOS.

To get started…

1. First, download the InstantWP software and extract it.
2. Once extracted, look for the file Start-InstantWP.bat and then run it.
3. Your window might prompt you with a firewall alarm about InstantWP. Allow access here.
4. This will take you to an installation wizard/guide.
5. Let the settings be set on default on all screens and click “next” until the wizard starts the installation.

Once the installation is complete, you have an Apache server and WordPress both installed and ready to host your site locally.

Now, to run the WordPress site:

1. Search and run the Start-InstantWP.bat It should be in the same folder in which you extracted the InstantWP file.
2. Once you run the file, multiple command prompt screens will pop up and automatically disappear.
3. Once the InstantWP Local Installation screen appears and the server starts (which may take a few minutes), press the button WordPress Admin.
4. This will load the login page for your WordPress site’s admin panel.
5. Use your credentials to log in and then play around with your WordPress site.

Once you are done with setting up your site, you can run it in your browser using /localhost as the address in the browser and your site name afterward, e.g.

http://localhost:29238/wordPressSiteName

Here, the wordpressSiteName is the name you selected for your WordPress site. If you check the directories where you installed WordPress, you will notice that it is also the name of a folder containing all files for your site.

One thing to keep in mind here is that sometimes the pages might not load due to the server not running. If this happens, give it some time and then try again.

You can visit the FAQ section to further understand and troubleshoot.

2.    Using WAMP­­­­­­­

The Manual Installation

WAMP stands for Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP. It is a standard combination for running a server on a Windows platform for PHP and MYSQL based sites. What we need to understand here is that all internet websites require the following to run…

• A server to host their files and resolve their domains… these could be one or two separate servers
• A server to run server-side programming
• A server for DB

A WAMP installation solution provides all of that, taking care of the server part of the problem. The other part, WordPress, will be taken care by installing it separately.

·        Installing WAMP

Let’s get started with WAMP installation…

1. Download WAMP installation file and then run it. Select the file according to your OS.
2. Use default settings in your options, including username and password, and continue following the instructions until installation is complete.
3. Once installed, you will have an icon on your desktop and a small red icon on your taskbar.
4. Run the WAMP server by double-clicking the desktop icon.
5. The taskbar icon “W” will turn to green when the server is running.

Note that once installation is completed, your localhost and www folders will have been created. If the path was set as default, then it should be in c:\wamp\www and can be accessed by typing http://localhost in the address bar of your browser.

·        Installing WordPress

After you have your WAMP server installed and running, its time to get WordPress installed in it. To do that, simply…

1. Download the latest WordPress file from wordpress.org.
2. Copy the downloaded file into the newly created folder C:\wamp\www\ and extract it here.
3. Once extracted you will see a folder named WordPress.
4. This folder represents one WordPress site. You can copy and rename it if you want to mimic having multiple websites.

5. Now, every WordPress site needs a separate database. For that, open your browser and go to the address localhost/phpmyadmin/. This will open up the phpMyAdmin admin panel of your server. Make sure that the server is running prior to this.

• Here, click on the Database link on the top side of the page, just on the right side of the navigation panel.

• On the new page Databases, under “Create new database,” write a name for your new database for the WordPress site and then click “Create.” That’s it… your database is ready.

7. Once your database is ready, the only thing left is to configure WordPress. For that, go to the address localhost/wordpress/. This will load a page asking your permission to Create a Configuration File, click on it to go to the next page.

On the next page, the installation guide will be asking for information to connect to the database we created for the site. Here, press the Let’s go! button to get started.

8. On the next step, fill in the relevant information regarding…

• Database name, which should be the same as we just created.
• Database user, which should be root by default, if you haven’t changed it during WAMP installation.
• The password, which should be blank, unless you have changed that.
• Leave the rest and press submit.

9. After creating the configuration file, you will be taken to the last step before installation. Here, fill in the information as you wish and then press “Install WordPress.”

Once the installation is completed, you will be taken to a “Success!” page, prompting you to log in.

Click on the Log in button to get access to the admin panel and start tinkering around. Your WordPress site is up and running on your Windows 10 platform.