# Installing WordPress on Windows

1. Download XAMPP Download
2. Download WordPress Download
3. Download Microsoft Visual C++ Download
4. Install Microsoft Visual C++
5. Right click the downloaded XAMPP file > Extract All...
6. Right click the downloaded Wordpress .zip file > Extract All...
7. Make a copy of wordpress/wp-config-sample.php and name it wp-config.php
8. Cut the wordpress folder inside the XAMPP/htdocs directory
9. Copy the extracted XAMPP directory to a safe location to run from, C:\Program Files for example
10. Run XAMPP/setup_xampp.bat to update the configuration files with the new server location
11. Run XAMPP/xampp-control.exe
12. Click the Start button next to Apache and MySQL
13. Navigate to XAMPP/mysql/bin
14. Hold the SHIFT key and right click in the white space > Open PowerShell windows here...
15. Type the following in the PowerShell window to setup the WordPress database
    ./mysql -u root
    CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
    GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wordpress_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'W0rdPr3ss!!';
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
    EXIT;
16. Open a web browser and navigate to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/
17. Copy the response for use shortly
18. Navigate to XAMPP/htdocs/wordpress and edit wp-config.php with a text editor
19. Press CTRL+F and search for 'DB_NAME'
20. Update the database name, username and password
21. Press CTRL+F and search for 'AUTH_KEY'
22. Paste the secure secret keys generated earlier, overwriting the template
23. Save the changes to wp-config.php
24. Open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP/wordpress
25. The Wordpress setup screen should be displayed
26. Select a language > Click Continue
27. Create a site title and WordPress login > Click Install WordPress
28. When the installation completes, login with the WordPress credentials created in the previous step
29. Welcome to your very own, self-hosted WordPress installation