How to Install WordPress on Local Drive?

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If you’re new to WordPress, you might want to get familiar with the CMS by installing it on your local drive.

Installing WordPress on localhost gives you a testing environment on your own computer. You can also move it to a live server afterward.

If you already have WordPress installed on your hosting platform, you can skip the following altogether.

However, if you want to create a staging environment locally before pushing updates live, then using localhost as staging is a good idea.

Find out how to install WordPress on localhost below –

Requirements

Operating System: Cross-platform

Web Server: Any of these suitable for your OS (Operating System)

  • XAMPP – Available for all OS
  • WAMP – For Windows
  • MAMP – For Mac
  • LAMP – For Linux

Database: MySQL 5.6 or greater recommended

PHP: PHP version 7.4 or greater recommended

Now, here are the steps –

How to Setup WordPress on Localhost

1. Download and Install XAMPP

XAMPP is popular open-source software that creates a virtual web hosting server on your local PC.

For downloading XAMPP, go to their official website and download the latest version. Then, install it on your PC.

The installation process is pretty straightforward. But, at one point you’ll have to remember to tick mark a few options.

tick the options install wordpress on local drive
tick these options

Make sure that these options are ticked. Then, continue the rest of the installation normally.

After installation, you‘ll have a new folder ‘xampp’ containing other important folders and XAMPP files on your local C:\ drive.

2. Download WordPress and extract it to XAMPP > htdocs

Next, you’ll have to download WordPress from the WordPress.org website’s download page.

download wordpress install wordpress on local drive
download wordpress

Now, copy the downloaded ZIP file to drive C > xampp > htdocs.

copy wordpress zip install wordpress on local drive
copy wordpress .zip file

Now, extract the WordPress zip file, Then, rename the extracted folder to the name you want for your local site. Be sure you remember it’s going to be used in the URL.

Here, we renamed it to ‘testwebsite’. So, our website’s URL would be

localhost/testwebsite

local website name install wordpress on local drive
local website name

You can then delete the zip folder.

3. Create Database

To create the database, you’ll have to get your local server running. So, locate and open XAMPP.

Then, start Apache and MySQL.

run xampp server install wordpress on local drive
run xampp server

Now, go to the browser and type in localhost/phpmyadmin. This will open the phpMyAdmin dashboard for creating a local database.

So, go to Databases on the menu, add the database name, and click on the Create button.

creating database install wordpress on local drive
creating database

Be sure you remember the database name. You’ll need it in the next step.

4. Install WordPress on XAMPP

Now, you can go ahead and install the WordPress website locally on XAMPP.

For that, go to the website URL. Now, if you go back, your website URL would be

‘localhost/’ + your website name

In our case, it’s – localhost/testwebsite

Now, the WordPress website installation begins. The installation is pretty straightforward. While some of the steps should be noticed. We’ll show them below.

It starts with selecting the preferred language.

After that, you’ll have to enter some information.

  • Database: enter the database name which you created on phpMyAdmin. Example: db_testwebsite on our case.
  • Username: enter ‘root’
  • Password: leave blank

Leave others as they are and submit.

enter database information install wordpress on local drive
enter database information

Next, you’ll have to enter your site name, username, and other information.

account creation install wordpress on local drive
account creation

Finally, click on Install WordPress to complete the installation.

After that, you can log in to your WordPress CMS, which we will talk on the next lesson.

Ankit S J B Rana

Ankit S J B Rana

Ankit S J B Rana is a marketing enthusiast originally from the Himalayas of Nepal and currently based out of Bangkok, Thailand.

He is currently the Marketing Director at Mbrella Films and Filma.io

Marketing With WP is Ankit's blog full of marketing insights to turn your website into a 24 hour marketing machine.

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