# Installing phpBB Forum/Bulletin Board on Windows

1. Download XAMPP Download
2. Download phpBB 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 phpBB .zip file > Extract All...
7. Rename the extracted phpBB3 folder phpBB
8. Cut the phpBB 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 phpbb database
    ./mysql -u root
    CREATE DATABASE phpbb DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
    GRANT ALL ON phpbb.* TO 'phpbb_rw'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '!!phpBB##';
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
    EXIT;
    exit
16. Open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP/phpBB
17. The phpBB introduction screen should be displayed
18. Click the Install tab
19. Click the Install button
20. Input an administrator username, email address and password > Click Submit
21. Enter the database hostname, username, password and database name > Click Submit
22. Click the Submit button on the Server configuration page
23. Click the Submit button on the E-mail configuration page
24. Enter a title and short description on the Bulletin board configuration page > Click Submit
25. When the installation completes, open XAMPP/htdocs/phpBB and rename or delete the install directory
26. In a web browser, navigate to http://DNSorIP/phpBB
27. Welcome to your very own, self-hosted forum with phpBB