Installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP on Windows with WAMP (The easy way)

This tutorial explains, step-by-step, how to install Apache, MySQL and PHP on Windows the easy way using WAMP. WAMP is an all-in-one program bundle that includes preconfigured versions of Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

Start off by downloading the latest version of WAMP from the WAMP download page.

A warning message appears warning you not to install with previous versions of WAMP. If you have an earlier version of WAMP installed, uninstall it.c Click yes.

The WAMP setup welcome screen appears, click next.

The license agreement dialog will appear, accept and click next.

Choose your installation directory (Note that Apache, MySQL, and PHP will all be installed under this directory). Click next.

A dialog prompting you to choose what icons to load will appear, choose which icons to load and click next.

Now we are ready to install, verify the information is correct and click install.

After installation, a message box will prompt you to select your default browser for WAMP.

Next, a message box will ask you to install the default WAMP homepage. This will create an index.php in your document root to show that everything is working correctly. If you select yes, you can easily overwrite this file later.

Next, a dialog prompting you for PHP mail configuration will appear. This is for scripts that can automatically send email. If you do not yet have a SMTP server or have one that requires authentication, leave the SMTP server as localhost and you can change it later. Click next.

Now we are ready to launch WampServer. Select Launch WampServer 2 now and click finish.

Notice a icon in your system tray.

Clicking on this icon lets you easily manage Apache, MySQL, and PHP with easy access to important directories and configuration files. It also allows to to stop and start each service or all at once. Especially notice the ‘www directory’ as this is where you can begin to upload your website.

Wamp 2 also includes phpMyAdmin and SQLiteManager which are very useful web applications for managing your MySQL databases.

Conclusion and further reading

WAMP is a great tool that simplifies the process of installing a web server on your windows computer.

Now that all the server software is installed you can start installing web scripts such as Wordpress, Zencart, and Drupal just to name a few.