XAMPP is free and open-source software that makes it easy for web developers and designers to install necessary components required to run PHP web-based software like Joomla, WordPress, and other software on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
When I first started on web development, I only knew about Html and CSS. But I had to learn the hard way after a friend challenged me to create dynamic websites of course which required a web server for running. Today I want to share my experience on how I installed and configured XAMPP on my computer.
NOTE: If you are interested in developing web-based applications, mostly dynamic web applications which require integration with a database, then XAMPP will save your time and frustrations of manually installing and configuring MySQL, Apache, PHP, and Perl on your computer. XAMPP will provide a viable and better environment for testing your applications before launching them on a live server or for production.
Without further ado, let’s embark on how to install and configure XAMPP on Windows 10. I am pretty sure by the end of this blog tutorial you will be having your own local web development server on windows 10.
Step 1: Download the XAMPP installer
Open your favorite browser and visit ApacheFriends.org and download the XAMPP installer. You will have to choose the version with your preferred PHP version. The size is about 140-146MB.
Step 2: Run the XAMPP installer.
I am assuming by now you have successfully downloaded the XAMPP installer on your computer. Navigate to your Downloads folder and run the installer. Once you run the installer, a window will prompt you with a user access box asking you for permission to continue with the installation. Click Yes and the installation process will start.
Step 3: User Access Control Warning
After clicking Yes, the XAMPP installer will display a User access control as shown in the screenshot below. The warning is related to installing XAMPP on other directories rather than the root of your computer. Click OK to continue.
Step 4 – XAMPP Welcome setup wizard
You will see the actual setup wizard. Click the Next button to continue with the installation.
Step 5 – Select the required components
A dialog box will be displayed as shown below. By default, all the components are selected and if you are comfortable with the selected components, click next to continue. I prefer leaving the selected components untouched and continuing with the installation. Click Next to continue.
Step 6 – selecting the installation folder
This wizard option requires you to choose your preferred location for installing XAMPP. However, due to some restrictions on the software and to avoid encountering other problems after the installation, you may leave the selected folder untouched – the default folder.
So, to be on the safe side, leave it untouched and click Next to continue.
Step 7 – Bitnami for XAMPP
Bitnami for XAMPP provides free installers for installing Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, and other popular open software. If you leave the Learn more about Bitnami for the XAMPP checkbox checked, it will automatically open a bitnami page on your browser after clicking the Next button. It is not an offense to learn more, so give it a try and Click Next to continue.
Step 8 – Setup is ready to install
The XAMPP setup is ready to start installing XAMPP on your computer. Click Next to start the XAMPP installation process.
You will have to wait for the setup to finish installing XAMPP.
Step 9 – Installation complete
Click Finish to complete the installation. If you want to manually start XAMPP, you can uncheck the “Do you want to start the Control Panel now?” checkbox. If you leave the checkbox checked, XAMPP will automatically start after you click the finish button.
Leave the checkbox checked and wait to see if XAMPP starts successfully.
After you have clicked the Finish button, XAMPP will start successfully and a language window will appear. Select the language of your choice and click Save.
The XAMPP control panel will start successfully.
Step 10 – Checking whether everything is okay
You can click on the Start button corresponding to Apache, MySQL, and other components displayed to run them and ensure everything is okay. If every component is okay, the start button will change to stop and the component you started will be highlighted in green color.
You can go ahead and click on the Admin button under MySQL to open PHPMyAdmin on your default browser.
Or
You can visit http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ on your browser to open phpMyAdmin.
That’s it, you are ready to start developing web applications.
