AMP + WordPress on Windows XP?

June 6, 2005 5:00 PM

Heh. I am in the strange position of being far more capable of managing Unix/Linux/OS X than I am Windows XP, and, for development purposes, I'd like to install WordPress on my Windows box.

I don't want to use an all-in-one type WAMP package because I'd like to be able to independently configure and upgrade individual components, so EasyPHP, WAMPP+, etc, are out. I've tried to follow the somewhat outdated instructions located on the page Server Project: WP on XP, but I've run into a couple of snags. I've managed to get Apache and PHP mostly working (Apachemon starts twice when I reboot, but I will figure that out later) but I am stuck on MySQL.

So, my question.

1) Are there better instructions for running WP on XP than the ones I linked?

2) If not, does anyone have a recommendation for the most succinct/clearest instructions for getting MySQL and PHPMyAdmin running on XP? The ones I linked call for me to run executables that I don't seem to have in my download of MySQL 4.1, and the included documention is weak and convoluted at best.

Pretend that I am a bright but small child when answering.

Thanks.

posted by xyzzy to computers & internet (4 comments total)

1. I'm sorry, I don't know the first thing about WordPress.

2. MySQL is almost completely identical across platforms, so your UNIX experience more or less applies here. As usual, once it is installed -- in the case of Windows this should consist pretty much of unzipping the binary distribution -- you need only pick a my.cnf file, run the daemon and it's up. (I believe the daemon is called safe_mysqld.exe on Windows, but I don't have Windows in front of me for a reference). Likewise, unless it's changed since I last looked at it, PHPMyAdmin doesn't know a durned thing about Windows; just configure it to connect to localhost and you're up and running.

Maybe you could be a bit more specific about how you are "stuck on MySQL?" That might help shake out some more useful advice than my admittedly weak "durr, just install it and run it."
posted by majick at 6:01 PM on June 6, 2005

I'm not a DB admin.. I was always a sysadmin, so I just installed software for people and optimized the server to run it nicely. It was up to them to make users and databases and such.

So, here's where I am.

1. MySQL is installed and running.

2. PHPMyAdmin is installed and runs.

PHPMyAdmin says " MySQL said: Documentation
#1045 - Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)"

Which makes sense, because every time I try to run the Windows db config utility for MySQL, it says the same thing, even though I set a freaking password during the install and have input that exact same password into every config file as required.
posted by xyzzy at 6:12 PM on June 6, 2005

After hours of googling, I found an answer.

I installed MySQL Administrator (free from the MySQL site) and changed the root password to a blank one. Changed the ini file to use old style password hashing. Readded the original root password. Restarted all services. Done.

Now I have WP on WinXP. Whee.
posted by xyzzy at 8:33 PM on June 6, 2005

Thanks, xyzzy. I had this same problem several months ago and never got it resolved. I got a Mac Mini instead.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 10:40 PM on June 6, 2005