How to Install WordPress on your own Computer In 5 Minutes

You don’t have to be a geek to install WordPress on your own computer because the process is as simple as installing any other native Windows Application (e.g. Microsoft Office).

Before we get into the actual installation process, let’s look at some reasons why you may want to install a copy of WordPress on your local computer:

Reason #1. You have to buy a web domain and space on a web server to host your WordPress software online. These are however not required if you decide to run WordPress in a local environment.

Reason #2. Even if you have a website and web hosting space, you may still want to run a copy of WordPress on the local computer as it will help you test out new WordPress themes, plug-ins and other tweaks much faster.

Reason #3. Most WordPress hosts offer Linux based servers but with WordPress installed locally, you can try out the features of this powerful blogging software in a more familiar Windows environment.

How to Setup WordPress on your Computer

WordPress Tips + Things You Can Do After Installing WordPress

The WordPress tips and few hacks mentioned below may only apply to a self-hosted installation of WordPress version 2.6 or above.

*If your WordPress blog is hosted on wordpress.com, please skip this.

Tip 0: Change the Default Image Upload Folder

The default installation of WordPress will store all your images inside wp-content/uploads folder.

You can however use a different folder or even sub-domain on your web server for saving file uploads as in the setting screen above. This offers two advantages – your image URLs become relatively shorter and second, the size of your WordPress folder will always remain small and manageable.

Also deselect the option – "Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders."

Tip 1: Remove unnecessary code from your WordPress header.