This article is written for those who wanna install WordPress software as a backup of their blogs on their windows machines. It is just one shot installation for all required softwares such as PHP, MySQL, Apache and etc without individual downloading or manual configuring.

Normally, it’s kinda hard to install and configure PHP, MySQL, Apache on Windows. You have to download each and every packages. You may need to download the separated packages (eg: UI and Service) for some softwares. You may need to configure some files (eg: *.ini) manually. It’s kinda troublesome.

Now, the way that I show you is very simple. You only need to download one package and this package will install and configure all softwares that you need. This post is not just for installing WordPress locally. You can use this post as a reference for installing PHP, MySQL , Perl and Apache on your windows.

Okay. Let’s start!

First, you need to download one useful tool called XAMPP.

What is XAMPP?

XAMPP website said that ~

Many people know from their own experience that it’s not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP and Perl.

XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.

XAMPP is a tool that helps you to install MySQL, PHP, Perl, Apache and some more useful PHP applications (eg: phpMyAdmin) on your OS in very easy way without configuring anything. It works on Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris. However, this post is created for Windows users only and all screenshots are captured on Windows Vista.

Installing XAMPP ver 1.6.2 (PHP 5.2.2 and 4.7.7, MySQL 5.0.41, Perl and Apache)

Note for those who has installed IIS on your machine: Before installing XAMPP, it is better if you stop IIS (Internet Information Service ) because Apache Web Server will be used port 80 so that if IIS is currently using that port then Apache won’t be able to start the Service.

1. Download xampp-win32-1.6.2-installer.exe from this link. and Click the installer.

( The Wranning Messagebox will be shown if your OS is Windows Vista. Just click “OK” but Ensure that you install this package in the location that you have “Write” permission. If you are not sure about that, please just install “C:\xampp\”)

2. Click “Next”

3. Click “Next”

4. Check all three checkedboxes under Service Section. And Click “Install”

(Wait 1 or 2 minutes while installing. )

5. Click “Finish” button to finish the installation.

This is all about installing PHP, MySQL and Apache on your machine. The picture below is the directory structure of XAMPP that you just install in your machine.

Let’s start installing WordPress in your machine.

Installing WordPress in your machine

1. Download zip file from http://wordpress.org. And Extract it in your machine. Then, Copy and Paste it under htdocs folder of XAMPP installation. (eg: C:\xampp\htdocs\)

2. Type “http://localhost/phpmyadmin/” in your favorite browser.

3. Type “wordpress” in “Create New Database” textbox and click “Create” button. (The new database called “wordpress” will be created in MySQL database.)

4. Type “http://localhost/wordpress/” in browser (The following screen will be shown in your browser.) Click “create a wp-config file through a web interface”.

5. Click “Lets go” link

6. Click “Submit” button. (You should note that the default password of MySQL Server is blank and the default user name is “root”. If you have the custom user name and password then please fill accordingly.And ensure that you have “Write” permission to wp-config file and WordPress folder.)

7. Now, you have finished configuring wp-config file and you are ready to start installing WordPress in your machine. In order to start the installation, click “run the install” link.

8. Fill the title of your blog and your Email address. You can also check whether you want your blog to be visible in Search Engines. This option is not important since you are installing WordPress in your local machine with the purpose of backing-up your blog or personal uses. Then, Click “Continue to Second Step” button.

9. It will show you that the database has been created and the default has been filled. It will give you the admin user name and the generated password for admin user. (I would suggest you to change this generated password to something that is easy to memorize for you.)

Now, the installation is done with a few steps. You can start log-in to your wordpress. :)

Thats all about installing php, mysql, apache and wordpress installation on Windows. It is sooo easy, isn’t it? :) Let me know if you have any idea or comment for this post… Thanks for reading..

Introduction

This article is a collection of useful links for those who are new to blogging. Initially, I was thinking to write each and every tips by myself but there are a lot of cool articles about blogging so that I don’t need to repeat again. (I don’t want my blog to be a clone blog.) What I’m going to do here is that I will give you a collection links of useful articles written by professional bloggers (such as Lorelle VanFossen (Lorelle on WordPress), Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) and so on). One thing you should know is that it’s NOT like I just read one article and give it to you. I was spending so much time for reading about this in different blogs. All links that I’m giving you here are the best and my favorite. I believe that you will find it useful.

What is a blog/weblog?

• Introduction to blogging by WordPress Codex : This article covers everything about blogging. It mentions very clear definition of blog, the differences between a blog and CMS, some important blogging vocabularies, some blogging tips and etc.

• What is a blog? by ProBlogger : If you are still confused, I wanna suggest you to read this article written by Darren Rowse, the owner of problogger.net. He shares his own opinion and other people’s opinions about what a blog is in this article. You can get the definition of blog from different point of view.

The History of Blogging

• Weblogs: a history and perspective by rebecca’s pocket

Very important points you should know before start blogging

• Blogging is kinda hard. Blogging is not for everybody. Blogging is harder than you think.I have seem a lot of people who left their blogs. They just lost their interest of blogging due to a lot of reasons. Actually, building a successful blog is really hard. It need time to build it up.

• Your blog is not your diary. This is very important point that you should know before start blogging. Some people might say that blog is like online diary or something. I’m not agreed with that. There are some people who lost their jobs cuz of their blogs. EngTech wrote excellent post about 5 Reasons Blogging Leads to the Unemployment Line (You’re Fired!). ( I don’t wanna hear that you have arrested cuz of your blog. )

• Copyright Copyright is very important thing that you need to keep in mind. You need to respect other’s creation or work. The same way, you should know what to do when someone is stealing your work. Finding Stolen Content and Copyright Infringements and What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content from Lorelle’s blog are the best for this issue.

Okay. Now, you have some ideas about what you should know before jumping into blogging world.

Think about blogging platform

• Chossing a blog platform : This article is written by the owner of problogger.net. It will give nice idea about which blog platform is right for you.

Are you gonna use free blogging software?

If you are gonna use free blogging software then the following list are very popular blogging platform. You can choose one of them.

• WordPress.com
• Blogger.com
• Windows Live™ Space
• LiveJournal

Maybe, you might wanna read the comparison between those blogging service. Unfortunately, I don’t have the completed list. If you are interest about wordpress.com and blogger version 2, you can read my article “WordPress.com Vs Blogger2“.

Note: If you choose to use WordPress.com then you can ask me if you have any problem in using wordpress. I’ve been here over 1 year. I think I might able to help you.

Paid-hosting?

Paid-hosting is nice but not suitable for novice bloggers since you have to take care of everything. You have to know how to instal your blog, how to use FTP, security, bandwidth, domain name and configuration, budget and etc. However, you can do it if you want to. Don’t forget to read this article “Chossing a blog platform” again.

The following links might be useful for you ~

• Choosing the Domain Name for your Blog : If you are launching a blog for yourself, it’s easy. You just need to register your name. But if you are creating a blog for specific thing then it’s very important to have the right domain name which is match with your content. The article above will guide you everything about choosing the domain name for your blog.
• Genealogy Blog: The Blog Budget – How Much Does a Blog Cost? This article covers all expensive such as buying domain name, hosting, tools (camera, scanner, printer), software (photo editing software) and so on.
• Blog Building: Who Controls Your Blog? You? Your Host? The most of people think that if we buy a hosting, we can do everything. Sometimes, it’s not like that. There are a lot of hidden pain with hosting service provider. Who controls your blog? By lorelle and Do you own your website? by Dawud Miracle are the best for you to read for this point.

Advantages of having a blog (Why blog?)

As Engtech said in this post,

• Blogging makes you stand out from the crowd
• Blogs are the modern resume (ask Doug)
• Blogging helps you expand your network of contacts
• Blogging is a great way to learn new skills
• Blogging can be a career of its own

Conclusion

Those are the things that you should know before blogging. I believe that blogging is really nice. At least, you have something to do in your spare time.

There is one point that doesn’t include in this article. This is about driving traffic to you blog or promoting your blog or building a relationship with blog reader. I will write about this in another post. Please keep on waiting.

Feel free to let me know if you have any suggestion.

Thanks a lot.

I have good news for today. Joseph Scott, the newest member of the Automattic team, announced that new Tag Cloud widget and a few new options for categories/achieves have been added to wordpress.com.

Clouds and Drop Downs said that ~

Now on to the news: another new widget, and a new option for a few others.

For those of you who are really into tag clouds you’re in luck, now you can display your blog categories as cloud using the new Tag Cloud widget.

If you aren’t into tag clouds, but still looking for something a little different in the way you display categories we have something for you too. The Categories and Archives widgets now have options to use a drop down menu. This will be especially helpful to those of you who want your categories and archives list to take up less room on the sidebar.

We, all wp bloggers, are waiting this widget for long time. Initially, engTech came up with his own program called Tag Cloud Generator that can generate a cloud of tags or categories for blogs which are hosted in wordpress.com. His/her (I’m not sure whether engtech is a guy or girl so “his/her” :) ) program is really cool and I like it. (you may check the demo here.) But the weak point of this generator is that it require manual synchronization between your categories of your blogs and the tag cloud that you have generated. I do understand that it has to be synchronize manually since wp.com doesn’t allow users to add any scripts in our blogs.

Now, brand new widget called Tag Cloud is available in widget panel as below pic. As wordpress guys added this widget into wp system, this widget doesn’t require any manual synchronizing and it already integrate with WordPress MU system. how cool it is!

(You can find this widget in Presentation of Admin-Bar>Widgets as usual. The term “Side bar” has been changed to “Widgets” in Presentation section of WordPress MU started from yesterday.)

Here is preview of Tag Cloud and new options of Categories/Archieves. (Ref: Clouds and Drop Downs)

I hope that you all have great time with this widget “tag cloud” in your blogs today. :)

Happy blogging! :)

More Informations about Tags/Tag Cloud ~

• Tag Cloud
• Tag (metadata)

Updated: I have tried to add tag cloud in my blog but it doesn’t look good. :( It’s so sad.)

Updated:

As Joseph Scott commented as below

Michael,

Post a screen shot of what the tag cloud widget looked like, what was wrong with it, what you expected it to look like and what theme you were using.

Then drop me a note at http://joseph.randomnetworks.com/contact/ with the details. I’ll see what I can do.

I have posted a screenshot as below of what my tagcloud look like.

Actually, I would like to get a tagcloud like this one.

Thanks a lot. Joseph. I’m really glad that I got a comment from you. Josept. I used to post some of my wordpress problems in my blog but I never get any comment or reply from wordpress guys except wp guys did reply if I send a mail via feedback. Thanks again for your comment. and hope, there will be more cool ppl like you in Automattic team.

Did you know that Box.net Widget has been added to the sidebar of your blog?

Box.net Official blog announced this news on April 13, 2007. But I didn’t know about that since I’m not used to visit their blog. Anyway, I’m really glad to hear that news and I’m really appreciate it.

Presentation>Sidebar Widgets

Box.net File Sharing Widget

Update:

Unfortunately, this widget seems doesn’t work well so far. I have tried to add two or three times but it doesn’t work. It just keep on showing the following message ~

No files!
If you are the owner of this widget, click below to upload

It’s so sad.. I hope that wp.com will fix this issue as soon as possible.. maybe. that’s why wp.com hasn’t announced about this in their blog.

Have you tried to add it? What do u think about this brand new widget??

Update:

WordPress announced about Box.net Filesharing Widget yesterday. If you wanna see how this widget looks like, check-out here. WP also provided the detailed FAQ [link] about how to use this widget in wp.com blogs. I haven;’t tested yet. Hope, it will work..