How to Install Joomla Locally on a P.C.

February 23, 2010 | Joomla Tutorials | Written by Rod Martin

Following on from other newsletters where we showed you how to set up Joomla on a Mac and also how to develop locally and moving your site to a live server, this week we're going to walk you through installing Joomla locally, on a P.C..

We're going to use WAMP for this tutorial.

WAMP stands for "Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP" which are the different elements that allow you to run Joomla on your computer.

Here's how you do it:

Step 1: Install WAMP

Download WAMP to your computer.
Run through the WAMP installation process.
In your taskbar, down the by the date in the bottom-right hand corner of your screen, look for the WAMP icon. Click on that icon.
You should see a popup. Click "Start All Services" and then click "Localhost."
Hopefully you'll see a white screen with the Wampserver logo in the top-left corner.

Step 2: Download Joomla

Go to Joomla.org and click on the black button saying "Download Joomla. Get the Latest Version". Find the line saying ".... Full Package" and click on the "ZIP" text.
The file you download should have a long name such as Joomla_1.5.15-Stable-Full_Package.zip

Step 3: Move Joomla to WAMP

Click on the WAMP icon in your taskbar again and now click "www directory". This will take you to the folder where WAMP stores its websites.
Move your Joomla folder from Step 2 into this directory.
Extract the Joomla folder.
It will be confusing to keep accessing the website through a folder called /Joomla_1.5.15-Stable-Full_Package/ so rename the folder to something simple such as /joomlatest/

Step 4: Set up our database

Click on the WAMP icon in your taskbar again and now click "phpMyAdmin". This will take you to the software where Joomla's databases are managed.
Find the field labelled "Create new database" and enter "joomlatest". Click "Create".
Hopefully you'll see the name "joomlatest" appear in the left column.

Step 5: Install Joomla

In your browser, visit this address: http://localhost/joomlatest
You'll see the the normal Joomla installation screen. Click through screen 1, 2 and 3.
On screen 4, these will be your settings:
- Host Name: Localhost
- Username: root
- Password: [leave this blank]
- Database: joomlatest
On screen 5, enter your site name plus a username, email and password.

6: Delete/rename installation directory

Hopefully you still have your Joomla folder open. If not, click on the WAMP icon in your taskbar again and then on "www directory".
Rename the installation folder to something such as /installation-back/
Click "Site" on the final installation screen or visit http://localhost/joomlatest.

You should now have a shiny new installation of Joomla on your P.C. where you can develop your website securely in your local environment.

Video Showing How to Install Joomla Locally on a P.C.

Comments

#1 joomlag 2010-11-19 14:44

Great steps, thanks a lot

#2 kolonel 2010-12-07 06:31

So refreshing to get an easy and concise description for something like this. Thanks guys.

#3 Asif Musavvir 2010-12-26 21:28

I installed Joomla on my local computer. I have no problem until step 4. I created a database, then went to localhost/jooml atest, and on screen 4, I input the data base info. When I click next to go to screen 5, it gives me a error message "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'TYPE=MyISAM CHARACTER SET `utf8`' at line 29 SQL=CREATE TABLE `jos_banner` ( `bid` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment, `cid` int(11) NOT NULL default '0', `type` varchar(30) NOT NULL default 'banner', `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', `alias` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', `imptotal` int(11) NOT NULL default '0', `impmade` int(11) NOT NULL default '0', `clicks` int(11) NOT NULL default '0' , ......" PLEASE HELP.

#4 kl6H_steve 2010-12-27 12:35

Hi Asif

Any chance that you already have a copy of Joomla on this localhost, or that you created the database entries more than once?

Either way, on Step 4, try using something else except _jos in the Advanced options area of the installation.

#5 pradeep tambade 2011-01-07 14:20

hi,
i have problem in installtion of joomla.
it shows the message like

Cookies do not appear to be enabled on your browser client. You will not be able to install the application with this feature disabled. Alternatively, there could also be a problem with the server's session.save_pa th. If this is the case, please consult your hosting provider if you don't know how to check or fix this yourself.

#6 Kim Davis 2011-01-27 11:00

I have exactly the same problem. It seems related to mysql5.5 being incompatible with Joomla. I am using the latest version of the xampp which includes the latest version of mysql5.5 obviously.

Here is the topic on the Joomla forum
forum.joomla.org/.../

#7 Nick 2011-02-01 05:28

Hi Pradeep,

Sorry for the delay in responding. It's difficult for us to do any tracking and support in the comments and the forum is the ideal place for support requests. If you post this in our Joomla forum, we can answer it there within 24 hours.

Kind regards,
Nick

#8 Nick 2011-02-01 05:29

Hi Kim,

Sorry for the delay in responding. It's difficult for us to do any tracking and support in the comments and the forum is the ideal place for support requests. If you post this in our Joomla forum, we can answer it there within 24 hours.

Kind regards,
Nick

#9 Evan 2011-02-11 18:22

Perfect, just what I needed. Thank you for this, very helpful.

#10 Dennis Eagle 2011-03-05 19:25

The solution that worked for me. Navigate to
C:\wamp\www\joomlatest\installation\sql\mysql
With a text editor, edit joomla.sql
Replace all "TYPE=MyISAM" with ""
(don't include the quotes)
Save it.
In your browser go to
localhost/joomlatest
and start again. This time it should work.

#11 zaman_bangladesh 2011-06-12 18:08

At last with your article "How to Install Joomla Locally on a P.C." i installed joomla on my P.C. Thanks a lot.

Zaman

#12 Albert 2011-06-21 08:14

Thanks a million!

#13 jb 2011-09-17 13:07

Great article! Thanks a lot!

#14 Nick 2011-09-18 06:05

You're very welcome, Evan! :)

Kind regards,
Nick

#15 Nick 2011-09-18 06:06

You're very welcome, Zaman! We're glad we could help :)

Kind regards,
Nick

#16 Nick 2011-09-18 06:06

You're very welcome, jb! :)

Kind regards,
Nick

#17 anon 2011-09-28 16:25

Strict Standards: Accessing static property JCache::$_handl er as non static in C:\xampp\htdocs \joomlatest\lib raries\joomla\c ache\cache.php

what to do :).

#18 Nick 2011-09-29 06:20

Hi and welcome, Anon!

Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you're a student at OSTraining, could you copy and paste this into the support forum so one of our support techs can look into it for you? All you have to do is log in at www.ostraining.com and click on Support Forum in the main menu.

Please see the support FAQ for more information:
www.ostraining.com/.../

Kind regards,
Nick

#19 Ardiano1 2011-09-30 18:43

Strict Standards: Accessing static property JCache::$_handl er as non static in C:\xampp\htdocs \joomlatest\lib raries\joomla\c ache\cache.php on line 420

Strict Standards: Accessing static property JCache::$_handl er as non static in C:\xampp\htdocs \joomlatest\lib raries\joomla\c ache\cache.php on line 422

how to fix it :D

#20 irene 2012-01-24 23:03

hi,
after a "successful installation" (after fixing the "Type" problem)i can neither see the demo site nor admin page I just get a full bunch of mistakes like:
Strict Standards: Non-static method JLoader::import () should not be called statically in C:\xampp\htdocs \site\libraries \joomla\import. php on line 29

What can I do?Can you please help me?

#21 Nick 2012-01-25 02:11

Hi Irene,

Go to your php.ini of xampp and change error reporting to E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE and display errors to Off. Here is how they should look once you're done:

Quote:

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE

display_errors = Off

Kind regards,
Nick

#22 Nick 2012-01-25 02:11

Hi Ardiano,

Go to your php.ini of xampp and change error reporting to E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE and display errors to Off. Here is how they should look once you're done:

Quote:

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE

display_errors = Off

Kind regards,
Nick

#23 joey 2012-04-18 00:00

i followed through to the last phase, and the message on my screen was "The requested URL /joomlatest was not found on this server."i honestly think i made an error in the very last configuration, before the finish. i want to go back and edit but i can . what should i do?

#24 korosh 2012-06-27 19:03

Hi,
I installed and everything was well but in step 4 when I click on phpMyAdmin, a page in firefox was open but it said that the resource that you are looking for has been removed !!! Would you please do a favor and guide me what could I do ?
Regards,

#25 Dimitar 2012-10-02 19:19

Step4:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /phpmyadmin/ on this server.

Why can not access the database?
Thanks

#26 Akinola 2012-11-07 05:53

Thanks a million for this post.

#27 Dave 2012-11-30 15:06

great thanks... so much garbage out there to wade through... nice to just find something that runs you through it all

#28 slewrate 2012-12-14 00:30

The instruction above is very clear and understandable.
Thank for providing such an instruction

#29 japicito 2013-03-10 22:05

which is the password of root on j1.5

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