Having WordPress locally installed on your PC has lots of advantages. You can practice multiple features and assess their functionalities before the site goes on a live server. In case your code breaks during editing, you still have all the time to yourself to fix it without offending anyone on the web. But what could go wrong during the installation process.

Like any other technological platform, WordPress web design tools evolve, which makes mastery of installation procedures somewhat complex, this is why I used a tutorial to complete this process last week after nearly two years when I last installed WordPress.

So, according to Themeisle, the first thing to do while installing WordPress is to install XAMPP software, preferably from Apache Friends. This is a local server on which WordPress will be downloaded on the computer. Remember, this tutorial is tailor-made for Windows users.

Once your download is complete, run the file to launch the XAMPP software installer. Please note that if you have installed and activated an antivirus, you will see a pop-up message. Just click “Yes” to proceed.

Depending on how your Windows PC is configured, you may also get a prompt about User Account Control (UAC). Simply continue through those prompts. Once you’re done, you should be able to see the standard installer screen. Just click “Next” to continue.

On the next step, you can choose the components you want to install. Now, to install XAMPP and WordPress, you don’t need all the components shown on the setup screen. In this case, select MySQL and PHPMyAdmin and add them to already four existing components.

Now that you have selected all the necessary requirements, deselect anything else not needed and hit the “Next” button. Proceed to select which folder you want to install XAMPP in.

On the next screen, you will be prompted to install Bitnami for XAMPP, which you don’t need to install XAMPP and WordPress, simply uncheck that box. You can now select which folder to install XAMPP in. By default, it goes on Local Disk C (recommended).

Once you click next, you’re ready to run the install. The installation process may take a while, depending on your internet speed and reliability. Once it finishes, navigate to the xampp folder in Local Disk C and launch xammp-control.

Now, you’re on to the second step, which is; installing XAMPP and WordPress. To do that properly, you need to run two modules; Apache and MySQL. You can start both modules from the xampp-control panel. Once launched, you should see status changing to green.

It’s time to test that your local server is working properly. To that, go to http://localhost/dashboard/ in a web browser of your choice. Unless you didn’t screw something up, you now have a functioning XAMPP server on your Windows PC! But you still don’t have WordPress installed. Here’s how to get WordPress up and running on XAMPP.

If you’ve ever manually installed WordPress, the rest of the process should feel really familiar. First, you need to download latest version of WordPress by visiting wordpress.org. The in Windows, navigate to the folder where you installed XAMPP, which under a normal circumstance, should be C://xampp. In that folder, find the htdocs subfolder.

In htdocs, create a new folder for your test site. This folder name will become the sub-name used to access your site. For example, if you make the folder name mysite, you’ll access your site by visiting localhost/mysite. Once you create the folder, extract the WordPress .zip file you downloaded from wordpress.org into it.

This is where things could go wrong. Check back on issue 82 as we spell out this technicality and how to resolve it.