How To Install Wordpress in Windows

Wordpress is a really common blogging platform but can be quite tricky to install and setup on windows.  This page is not a detailed tutorial, rather a place to find all of the bits and pieces you need to perform a complete Wordpress installation.  I will also link to some tutorials towards the end of this page which will detail the process.

The first thing you need is a installation of MySQL available.  Ideally this wants to be installed on the same server your want to setup Wordpress on.  MySQL is available for Microsoft windows both in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. At the time of writing the current version is 5.1.48 but make sure you always choose the latest available version.

The installation is fairly easy, and you should make a note of the MySQL root password.  Its also worth installing the MySQL Workbench as this offers monitoring and administration tools which may be useful later.

You can work with either of these excellent web servers to run Wordpress on, but I prefer IIS as its built into most versions of windows. Windows Vista, Windows 2008 and Windows 7 come with the latest version of IIS - IIS 7 which is a very stable platform for web hosting.

Remember that by default IIS is sometimes disabled - use Programs and Features inside Control Panel to Enable IIS.

Wordpress uses PHP which must be installed first to allow wordpress to run.  PHP is not installed by default in windows, so you must download and install it first. 

Wordpress requires a MySQL database to work, and you should setup a specific user within MySQL for Wordpress to use. Assign only the permissions you need and most importantly if you are putting your Wordpress blog live on the internet DO NOT use the MySQL root account for your wordpress user this present a huge security risk.

Wordpress must then be downloaded and installed.  Once you have downloaded the files, you should uncompress then and place them on a suitable folder no your Server.  A common folder would inetpub -> wwwroot for IIS installation.

The final part is to run the built in Wordpress installation.  This will setup your blog with the default settings and create your administrator account for accessing the dashboard.  Once complete, you should be able to see your blog. (It will say hello world or something to that effect if its been installed correctly.)