Install WAMP 5 and WordPress on XP
Step 1: Get Wamp 5 Server from http://www.wampserver.com/en/ and then get the latest WordPress (you’ll need the ZIP) from http://wordpress.org/download/.
Step 2: Double click the WAMP 5 file and step through the easy and quick install procedure. NOTE: the box to automatically start when Windows loads each time is a good one to select.
Step 3: Now you should have a white fan icon in your bottom right menu bar near the time. Click it and open (if no fan icon then go to programs/Wampserver/start WampServer and the icon will appear. Hover over the icon and select PHPMyAdmin from the list and when it opens type wordpress into the create new database field and click create. THIS creates your wordpress database which will hold your content.
Step 4: Go to your Zip file for WordPress. Inside you will find a folder called wordpress, copy or unzip this directly into your WAMP 5 folder named www meaning go to your C drive in Windows Explorer, open Wamp/www and put the wordpress file in there).
Step 5: Now go to your Wamp icon again and this time select localhost off the top of that list. It is your local WAMP server address and you should see your available website files, in this case wordpress.
Step 6: Open the wordpress folder and it will tell you no wp-config.php file was found. Don’t panic this is entirely the process.
Step 7: With your HTML editor (DreamWeaver perhaps) go to the WAMP/www folder and open the wordpress folder. You will see a file named wp-config-sample.php. This needs to be changed.
Step 8: The first three lines need their values altered so database name now points to wordpress (your database you created), the user needs to be root and the password field is left empty.
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'root'); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', ''); // ...and password
Step 9: Do a Save As for this file to wp-config.php (just cut out the sample part). And you’re away.
Step 10: When you refresh localhost there should be a couple of form fields asking for a blog name and email address (you need a real email address but I believe on localhost this really isn’t that important). Both of these can be changed after the install. Press create new blog or install or whatever the screen says and you’re away.
Step 11: NOTE: the next screen will give you a password. By default the user is named admin but you need to remember the password as if you lose it I’m not sure how to retrieve it from the database seeing as it is encrypted.
Step 12: Now open localhost and under Your Projects click into WordPress and you will see your new blog. Access to the administration section can be either via the admin link under meta or simply by typing http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin
