Install a Local Web Server on Windows XP using WAMP

September 27, 2007

Here is the local web server video for Windows that I promised a few months ago. Local web servers let you work on development and testing right on your own computer. This means you don't have to deal with FTP and/or SSH and can work offline, anywhere, anytime.

This video shows you how to install a web server on Windows XP using WAMP. WAMP is a bundle of all the tools you will need in one package: Apache, MySQL and PHP.

Comments on this post will automatically be closed three months from the original post date.

by addi
play
9 min 40 sec
24.95 MB

Comments

Why not Xampp?

On September 27th, 2007 Bevan (not verified) said:

I'm surprised you used WAMP. Did you consider XAMPP?

WHY NOT XAMPP

On August 6th, 2009 Anonymous (not verified) said:

Because XAMPP is a full with bugs, non-functional, pile of crap!

All thrown onto you by a bunch of arrogant "TRY-AND-ERROR" self-announced pro-amateurs wasting your time, hoping that you would fill their forum with thousands of questions, they themselves, never had thought about it!

Otherwise it would W - O - R - K

WHY NOT XAMPP

On August 20th, 2009 David Smith (not verified) said:

Spoken like a true ID10T!

I've been using XAMPP for over a year and never had a problem until I upgraded to the Apache 2.2 version, in which case, Apache doesn't start.

... Nor does it start in WAMP

... Nor does it start as a standalone...

And since WAMP does not have e-mail, but XAMPP has all, isn't WAMP the "pile of crap?"

P.S. You're the same drone that wrote this same 'wanna-be propaganda' in several other forums, aren't you?

Recommendations

On September 27th, 2007 addi said:

I don't use Windows myself anymore and I have used XAMPP in the past (long, long ago). I have recently had several Windows users recommend WAMP over XAMPP to me so I figured I would go with that. I have considered doing a XAMPP video as well. Maybe folks that are familiar with both could give some thoughts on the differences between them and why one may be preferred over the other.

WAMP

On September 28th, 2007 NikLP (not verified) said:

I used WAMP a while back and it was all good. Bit of set up time. XAMPP I found to be much more obtuse, with a lot of extra stuff in it that I didn't want/need (PERL, for example).

WAMP is very simple and you can put it on a USB stick pretty easily or just zip the whol ething up and walk away.

XAMPP Lite

On October 10th, 2007 Anonymous (not verified) said:

If you don't want/need PERL support, you can download XAMPP Lite. XAMPP Lite is the same as XAMPP, except it doesn't include all the bulk you were talking about. XAMPP is the same way regarding USB sticks as WAMP. You can have the server run from your USB stick, if you really wanted to.

Installation and configuration Assistance

On January 9th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

Hello, I am new to web development, I decided to go for MySQL,PHP and APACHE, I got the individual set up's, however Apache refused to even begin installing on my system, it begins but then would say that it has been interrupted, and it will then give me the click finish option.I installed WAMP5 succesfully, but when I click the "Local host link",the bowser displays "cannot find page, PHPmy Admin gives the same. Please is there any configuration I need to do, and please is there any help I could get for why the Apache refuses to install

Need information related to web server

On April 18th, 2009 Abhi (not verified) said:

Hi
I m new in web server,
I m developing a web site
& for my company i want to make my own web server for windows based,

but how my local IIS server will connect with internet,
How can i access my web page which is loaded my own web server through the internet,
Plz help me

I have used WAMP for doing

On September 27th, 2007 Ray Smith (not verified) said:

I have used WAMP for doing local development for the last 6 months (low usage) and have had no problems.

No problems with XAMPP either

On September 27th, 2007 Linulo (not verified) said:

I use XAMPP from Apache friends for several years now and am happy with it. The control panel for starting and stopping MySQL and Apache does not work if run from a restricted Windows account, but granting write permissions to logfiles solves this problem.

As a sidenode, CamStudio is an awesome GPL'ed screen capture program under Windows. I have tried several capture applications including some VNC-based programs but I found CamStudio to be the best by far.

Server for Windows

On September 28th, 2007 Alexei Rayu (not verified) said:

For Russian - speaking users, there is an excellent all-in-one package, called "Danwer", distributed freely. Here's the URL: http://www.denwer.ru/

It installs PHP, SQL, SSI, PHPMYADMIN and much more in a Unix-like tree of directories and then runs by mounting a virtual drive. The setup weighs about 5 megabytes.

The only problem is Russian used in installation. But once you get past it, it's English. Setup is so easy, no video is required to make it so =)

I use Apache2Triad

On September 28th, 2007 Rich (not verified) said:

I started using Apache2Triad when I learned about it from the first Drupal book. The only reason I prefer it over WAMP is that I feel that the mysql admin tool is better than what is provided with WAMP. I have multiple sand boxes that I play in and I use different mysql users and data bases. Phpmyadmin (as far as I know) does not let you manage data base users. I could not figure out (other than the command line) how to add data base users with what is provided with WAMP.

Thanks for the Podcast Addison.

Rich

phpMyAdmin users are under Privileges

On September 28th, 2007 addi said:

Hi Rich,

phpMyAdmin does allow you full control over database users. It isn't necessarily intuitive because it is listed under "Privileges." When you click on Privileges you can edit existing users (so you could set a password for root here) and there is an "Add a new User" link. When creating new users you can choose the global and db permissions they should have.

Thanks

On September 29th, 2007 Rich (not verified) said:

I will check this out!

Rich

Virtual sub-domain

On September 28th, 2007 elv (not verified) said:

I usually set up a virtual sub-domain so that local.mydomain.com goes in my localhost, while www.mydomain.com still displays the real website.

To set this up in WAMP

1- click the tray icon, go to Config Files -> httpd.conf
At the end of the file there are probably these lines:

<VirtualHost *:80>
   DocumentRoot "C:/Wamp/www/"
   ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

Copy them and edit to add your own, something like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
   DocumentRoot "C:/Wamp/www/drupal-5.1/"
   ServerName local.mydomain.com 
</VirtualHost>

2- in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc (on WinXP) open the "hosts" file, and add a line like this one:
127.0.0.1 localhost local.mydomain.com

Save and close the files, restart the server and it works.

Advantages:
- no path problems with files and images if you have to use absolute paths for some reason
- more consistent if there are several versions of the website : local (on your PC), test, www (on distant servers)

Virtual Host

On October 12th, 2007 Jayesh Prajapati (not verified) said:

I have triad every type for setting virtual host on windows xp thru xampp. But it is displaying default pages. so please suggest me for that.. ie. http://local.mysite.com/xampp/

Great : )

On September 29th, 2007 Ryan (not verified) said:

I usually recommend the Wampserver to folks looking to do some testing on Windows machines and use it at work and home. Great job on the video. Now I can send people here instead of blindly to their page. ; )

btw, I'd love to make some screencasts for Ubercart but have no clue where to start. Do you know of a good Windows program to do them, or are you making these on a Mac? Many thanks.

-Ryan

I am on a Mac

On October 23rd, 2007 addi said:

so I am using iShowU for capture and iMovie for editing. I do Windows and Linux videos using Parallels. There are a few video programs for Windows and I've heard good things about CamStudio, which is free, but I've never used it myself. There are some tips for making videos in the Drupal.org handbook as well.

need information about web server.

On October 24th, 2007 pramod (not verified) said:

hi want to install web server on windows Xp..is it possible...?if yes can you tell me configuration setps

help me...!

On October 24th, 2007 tikho (not verified) said:

i wanna try make a web site by my self but i don't know where ido begin installing in windows xp cause i don't have microsoft iis for server, and i wanna try make it with php please help me what application needed ?

WOS (Webserver on a Stick)

On November 14th, 2007 mauryg (not verified) said:

I use a free open source package called WOS (www.wos.chsoftware.net) which includes Apache, MySQL, and PHP and comes preconfigured with your choice(s) of TYPO3, Joomla!, Mambo, Wordpress, Moodle, OS Commerce, Drupal, PHPMyAdmin and more. It can be installed on a USB stick as small as 512 MB or any other portable media. Best of all, you can take it with you, run it on any Windows machine without installation and when you remove it, it leaves NOTHING on the system.

Be Careful of Prepackaged Drupal

On November 14th, 2007 addi said:

When you get a "ready made" package that includes Drupal they often do not have the latest releases since they don't reroll their packages as the individual components are updated. I checked out the WOS list and they are still including Drupal (Version 5.1) which is not the latest version. There have been 2 security updates since then. If you do use something like WOS, make sure you upgrade your Drupal install so you know you are working with the latest code.

Aside from that little tidbit, a web server on a portable stick is indeed a nice thing to have at times.

Wow fantastic

On December 7th, 2007 Doug Thwaites (not verified) said:

Thank you much for such a straight forward tut to getting a server up and running, many thanks again

Doug T
New Zealand

sql and database localhost management

On January 31st, 2008 kasperjames (not verified) said:

i downloaded my sql databases, made my backups, and fallowed your videocast about this installation. but..

im lost. its taking me far too long to find the answeres. do you have a videocast about installing the sql backups and site backups from the server, down into the local host? what are the key aspects to lookout for? do i have to rename everything? why isnt anything working? sheesh...

can you send me in the right direction?

kasperjames

No video for that

On January 31st, 2008 addi said:

but that is a great idea for one. I'll add it to my (long) list of vids to do.

In the meantime, very briefly, you should be able to do this relatively simply by:

1) Import your DB dump. Create a new database and import the sql file into it. You can do this in PHPMyAdmin but if the dump is too large it will time out in the browser and you will need to do it from the command line. I've not got time for details on that but it is the same as any other MySQL import .

2) Put your site's directory backup on the webserver. You can put this in your document root or create a Virtual Host. Just know how to get to it in your browser.

3) Edit the settings.php file of the site to match your new DB info.

4) Go to the site and it should work.

hello there! I have

On February 23rd, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

hello there! I have installed the wamp server but when i lounge the php admin or sql my browser displays a blank page! Can yu maiby give me some advice, it's driving me crazy.

thanks

rui

Great video!

On March 4th, 2008 henri (not verified) said:

Great job addison! I am very greatfull as a beginner :) Keep up the good work we all appreciate it ;)
xoxoox

Vista

On March 27th, 2008 Xand3r (not verified) said:

I really want ro run local web server just like WAMP or XAMPP in vista.. But the apache won't start in vista.. anyone know how to fix this problem? thx..

I have the same problem.

On April 19th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

I have the same problem. Please help!

incredibly helpful -- thank you very much

On April 16th, 2008 doug D (not verified) said:

Thank you so very much for such a straightforward, clear, helpful video tutorial on setting up a local web server on Windows XP. Loved your voiceovers, too!
Doug

Move test site to server.

On April 30th, 2008 Tony (not verified) said:

Can you provide directions to information how to move the test site up to the server?

Thanks,
Tony

Me too!!

On September 22nd, 2008 Carol (not verified) said:

Yeah I'm wondering if this is possible...
I want to be able to do it too!

hy nice i wana creat a local server with 11 computers help

On May 5th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

thats very nice n!

Time out error

On May 11th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

I get the following error after install the local host and when trying to activate any modules
Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in C:\wamp\www\drupal\includes\file.inc on line 889

I have researched the internet and have made numerous changes as suggested with no result.

Me too, what did you ever

On August 17th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) said:

Me too, what did you ever find out?

Importing data has limits

On June 2nd, 2008 Arthur (not verified) said:

Wampserver works fine. But, I noticed recently that it freezes on me when I try to import lots of data. I have a database of properties with 50-400 different street names, city, state, long/lat data per file and when I try to import into a content type wampserver freezes and warns of a fatal error. Is there a way increase the server resources? I am using a Dell Latitude D620.

Arthur

Hello! I am a new

On June 9th, 2008 Mr.Pheak (not verified) said:

Hello! I am a new learner.

May you show me instruction of how to create website and host to internet?
- I can design, but how to host? intranet? internet?

I am looking forward to seeing from you soon.

Mr.Pheak

wamp not running

On June 22nd, 2008 web (not verified) said:

wamp not running on windows vista

dificuldades

On August 11th, 2008 hospedagem de sites (not verified) said:

não consigo instalar esse programa ajudem, obrigado

Well Done!

On December 29th, 2008 Jan Z. (not verified) said:

Just wanted to give you a quick congratulations on you video. Now, start adding the troubleshooting videos :)
Thanks, JZ

The smokin hot sounds of Addison Berry

On March 25th, 2009 Anonymous (not verified) said:

I could listen to you explain geek tech gobbledy gook any day of the week. This is by far the sexiest server installation tutorial I've ever encountered.

video down?

On April 13th, 2009 mike (not verified) said:

Addi,

It looks like the video is down - I can't access it via the "play" or "download" tabs...

-mike

Fixed

On April 13th, 2009 addi said:

Dunno what happened there, but I've got it fixed now. Thanks for the heads-up.

localhost not recognized

On May 5th, 2009 dosdr (not verified) said:

Hello. I am new to installing WAMP. I installed wamp5 vs 1.7.1a onto windows xp exactly as your video showed. All appeared to be fine. However, wamp still shows only 1 of 2 services running - server offline. When I type http://localhost into my browser, or if I try to access localhost, phpMyAdmin or SQLiteManager from the wamp icon, it says webpage cannot be found. I even tried restarting all services.

All firewalls and antivirus are disabled at the moment. I dont think I'm supposed to click on "Put Online" for local use, but I did anyway just to see what would happen, and I get an error: "Could not execute menu item (internal error) [Exception] could not perform service action: The service has not been started".

WAMP is set to use the default C:\wamp\www directory and the index.php file is there. Do you have any idea why the localhost will not come up?

Thank you,
dosdr

localhost not recognized - fix

On May 5th, 2009 dosdr (not verified) said:

lol. just after posting that message, i came accross a post regarding a conflict with Xampp and Skype. Just for a test, I changed my skype configuration to disable the use of port 80 as a secondary port. And guess what...WAMP works now! Who would guess.

Here is the post for anyone who's interested:
http://www.trap17.com/forums/Skype-Xampp-Port-Conflict-t47591.html

Thank you anyway lol.

dosdr :)

New user Help me

On June 4th, 2009 shabir (not verified) said:

hello as iam new user i have tried to set up wamp to run for php and my sql
still iam not able to use mysql php and apache plz help how i setup this application on my system

Http server is reseting connection

On July 30th, 2009 pallab sharma (not verified) said:

I have configured http in the laptop with IIS services. I was trying to establish http connection with cisco mars to upload a file in mars but http server was reseting the connection. The message shown was to check the url username and password. But in the http server I was able to browse with the same url , username and password. Please let me know what setting I have to do in http server.

The logs during the session was as follows:
15:43:18.336731 .33854 > .http: . ack 1 win 5840 (DF)
15:43:18.338638 .33854 > .http: P 1:101(100) ack 1 win 584
0 (DF)
15:43:18.570971 .33854 > .http: P 1:101(100) ack 1 win 584
0 (DF)
15:43:18.571788 .http > .33854: . ack 101 win 65435 (DF)
15:45:43.904629 .33920 > .http: S 925135265:925135265(0) win 5840 (DF)
15:45:43.908772 .http > .33920: S 1763144611:1763144611(0) ack 925135266 win 65535 <
mss 1460,nop,wscale 0,nop,nop,timestamp 0 0,nop,nop,sackOK> (DF)
15:45:43.908814 .33920 > .http: . ack 1 win 5840 (DF)
15:45:43.910442 .33920 > .http: P 1:101(100) ack 1 win 5840 (DF)
15:45:44.071240 .http > .33920: . ack 101 win 65435
(DF)
15:48:08.085417 .http > .33782: R 305418260:305418260(0) ack 623883804 win 0 (DF)

15:50:38.161959 .http > .33847: R 2243496040:2243496040(0) ack 751747375 win 0 (DF)
15:50:38.162461 .http > .33854: R 1:1(0) ack 101 win 0 (DF)
15:53:08.238650 .http > .33920: R 1:1(0) ack 101 win 0 (DF)
16:15:04.842248 .34736 > .http: S 2782074390:2782074390(0) win 5840 (DF)
16:15:04.842578 .http > .34736: S 4176242768:4176242768(0) ack 2782074391 win 65535 (DF)
16:15:04.842613 .34736 > .http: . ack 1 win 5840 (DF)
16:15:04.843709 .34736 > .http: P 1:101(100) ack 1 win 5840 (DF)
16:15:04.990409 .http > .34736: . ack 101 win 65435 (DF)
16:15:58.273110 .34759 > .http: S 2832736402:2832736402(0) win 5840 (DF)
16:15:58.273343 .http > .34759: S 921031359:921031359(0) ack 2832736403 win 65535 (DF)
16:15:58.273403 .34759 > .http: . ack 1 win 5840 (DF)
16:15:58.275335 .34759 > .http: P 1:101(100) ack 1 win 5840 (DF)
16:15:58.486174 .34759 > .http: P 1:101(100) ack 1 win 5840

error

On September 6th, 2009 shakaama live (not verified) said:

I wanted to commend you on an excellent tutorial on wamp.

However, the part i needed help with was on the drupal part. once I install the drupal to the www folder and then click on the project i get 1 million lines of code and at the bottom, the drupal install. If I follow the install, i finally end up with a complete error and drupal can't proceed.

example: 1 million lines of
Deprecated: Function ereg() is deprecated in C:\wamp\www\drupal2\includes\file.inc on line 895

If you could help me, me and others have asked this question all around the web and no one answers.

local webserver

On November 9th, 2009 Richstone (not verified) said:

Hi very new to this, can anyone help me setup a webserver on windows 7 professional and what i'll need for the setup pls, am starting from the scratch!
thanks
richstone

Hello sir Wamp Server Installing but dont run php

On November 11th, 2009 Senthilkumar (not verified) said:

Hello. I am new to installing WAMP. I installed wamp2 vs 1.7.1a onto windows xp exactly as your video showed. All appeared to be fine. However, wamp still shows only 1 of 2 services running - server offline. When I type http://localhost into my browser, or if I try to access localhost,

WAMP is set to use the default C:\wamp\www directory and the index.php file is there. Do you have any idea why the localhost will not come up?
Sir I already Install Asp Localhost(IIS) Please Help Me

Thank you,
Senthil