Many PHP developers like to build their websites and test on locally servers before publishing to real server. To build local web server environment on Windows computers, you can use XAMMP for Windows. In this guide, we will introduce the great free tool XAMPP which is developed by Apache Friend, now the most popular PHP development environment for Windows, Mac OS X & Linux. XAMPP is a completely free, easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP, and Perl. The XAMPP open source package has been set up to be incredibly easy to install and use. Check out below instructions, see how to install XAMPP on Windows computers.
How to Install XAMPP on Windows PC?
Why use XAMPP for Windows?
- The most popular PHP dev package
- For Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2003, 2008, 2012
- Containing MySQL, PHP, and Perl
- Easy installation and configuration
- Completely free of charge
We will break down into details of each step with screenshots and references. If you want to create a local server environment for testing websites before uploading to a web hosting account, check out the easy steps below.
Install XAMPP for Windows
You can download XAMPP below.
XAMPP comes with different version for Windows, Mac and Linux. Go to download the Windows version XAMPP 1.8.2 (with PHP 5.4) if you are on Windows 2003, 2008, 2012, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10; another version XAMPP 1.8.3 (with PHP 5.5) is compatible with 2008, 2012, Vista, 7, 8, 10, this version is not compatible with Windows XP or 2003. The latest WordPress 3.9.1 requires PHP version 5.2.4 or greater. So both XAMPP for Windows 1.8.2 and XAMPP for Windows V 1.8.3 will work with the latest WordPress.
Run the XAMPP setup wizard, it will guide you through the easy steps to set up XAMPP on your Windows computer.
The installation of XAMPP for Windows is very straightforward, just like you install any other Windows applications. Just need to make sure select MySQL server and phpMyAdmin in the XAMPP components selecting screen, see below screenshot.
Apache and PHP are greyed out, they are the essential to run XAMPP local Apache server on your PC, so you can’t disable them. Other options are optional. Since most CMS or dynamic websites requires a MySQL database, so we have to enable MySQL. XAMPP offers phpMyAdmin, the free tool to manage MySQL databases. When you select and install MySQL database in the custom installation of XAMPP on Windows computer, so will the phpMyAdmin be installed..
XAMPP files will be saved to a folder on your hard disk with the websites included. You will have the option to select an existing folder or create a new folder to save all XAMPP files.
Now both the local Apache server with PHP support and MySQL server with phpMyAdmin tool have been set up. We are going to create a MySQL database in the next step.
Create MySQL Database in XAMPP
Start up XAMPP, you will open the XAMPP control panel as below. Click to start both Apache and MySQL. We are now going to create the MySQL database for the local web applications installation on Windows, such as local WordPress site setup, local Joomla site setup, etc.
From above admin panel, click Admin button for MySQL, the phpMyAdmin open in a tab or window of your default web browser. Click Databases, choose and input the database name and click Create button, the MySQL database will be created. See below screenshot.
Congratulations, you have sucessfully installed XAMPP on a Windows PC. You can go to building your websites and host them on your local XAMPP server now.
i know that we can’t install plugins like Elementor on the free wordpress, if i install xampp will i able to do so locally?
Yes, you can install Elementor and other plugins on the local WP sites created by XAMPP