Twirkd: How to host Wordpress on a local Windows system within a jiffy?

How to host Wordpress on a local Windows system within a jiffy?

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 View Comments

One doesnt need to be a geek to host a wordpress blog on a local computer. A couple of installations and a little tweaking is perfect for it. Check out how.

First of all, why would any one want to host WordPress on a local computer? Hmm. I thought for a while and came up with three reasons.

Reason #1: If an user has a domain name but has not registered with any web-hosting services yet - he can take his time to come up with an attractive layout with an interesting set of plugins to lure their visitors. No urgency needed. Once the layout and theme is finalised, he can then contact a web-hosting company and come up with the same layout in a jiffy and start posting immediately. Also, if he loves to change the theme in a later stage, theme-testing can be done on the local computer and then can be uploaded to the live blog.
Reason #2: Geeks like playing around with stuff (without paying money, of course!). Once, hosted on a local computer, he/she can play around, test with a lot of plugins and themes, and see the result almost immediately, since local computers give out the result in an instance.

Reason #3: Complex and high profile users would love to host a live wordpress blog from their own computer.

This tutorial would be useful for them all.

Steps:

Download WAMP : Download the latest version of WAMP here. (Approximately, 16Mb)
Install WAMP : Install WAMP on your system. Once installed, activate WAMP. A small speedometer-like icon appears in the taskbar. Wait for a while until the entire speedometer becomes white else click on it and select Start all services.
Download Wordpress : Of course, without it the entire process would be a mere waste of time. Download the latest stable copy of Wordpress here.
Extract Wordpress : Wordpress normally comes in a ZIP archive. Extract Wordpress to the Installed Drive:\wamp\www folder.The localhost entirely functions from the www folder. The www folder can be easily accessed by single-clicking on the WAMP icon on the taskbar and selecting www directory.
Go to phpMyAdmin : Single click on the WAMP icon and select phpMyAdmin. A browser window opens showing phpMyAdmin. Your entire control over MySQL databases take place, though you need not worry about it for hosting a Wordpress blog.
Select Privileges from the top menu of phpMyAdmin and then click on Add new user. Under Login Details, entire your desired user name, choose Local from the drop-down menu for Host and finally enter and retype your desired password. Generate Password just gives you a random password for you. You may well avoid it. Under Database for user, choose Create database with same name and grant all privileges. Under Global Privileges section, choose Check All. Press Go. You are done creating a new user. Keep your username and password in mind.
Go to http://localhost in your browser. The WAMP Server HomePage opens up and now choose wordpress from the Your Projects category.
An error window opens up like this.
Dont worry. Just click, Create a Configuration file. Click on Lets Go in the next window. Enter your details in the next window - Database name is your username since we have checked Create database with same name and grant all privileges in the previous step. Enter your User Name, Password and Database Host. Leave out the Table Prefix option. You need not worry until you need to run multiple Wordpress installations in a single database. Press Submit.
Press Run the Install in the next window.
Enter your Blog Title and E-mail address and press Install Wordpress.
Wordpress generates a random password along with the user-name admin. Note down the random password just for a second, you may change it immediately. Press Log In.
The next page asks for your user name and password shown in the previous step. Enter them and Log In.
The dashboard of your blog is shown along with a reminder asking you to change your random password. Do it immediately.
Enter your profile details and change Display Name publicly from admin to your preferred name. (Nobody likes an admin! They like a sweet name instead!)
You are done installing. You can test drive a variety of plugins and themes now.