How to Install Joomla on Your Windows 11 Computer Using XAMPP

What is XAMPP?

XAMPP is a handy, free package that lets you run web applications like Joomla right on your Windows 11 computer, even without an internet connection.

• Apache (the web server that shows your site)
• MariaDB (a database to store your site’s information)
• PHP (a language that helps Joomla work)

You can use XAMPP to try out Joomla and other website tools on your PC before making your site live on the internet.

Step 1Install XAMPP

If you haven’t installed XAMPP yet, follow this easy tutorial here:

How to Install XAMPP on Windows 11

Once installed, open the XAMPP 🎛️ Control Panel to start working with your local web server.

Step 2Create a Database for Joomla

Your Joomla website needs a place to store all its information, and you can easily create this database using XAMPP’s tools right on your Windows 11 PC.

Here’s how to do it using XAMPP’s built-in tools:

1. Open the XAMPP 🎛️ Control Panel.
2. Click the Shell button to open a command window.

3. Type this command and press Enter to log into the database system:
   
   mysql -u root
4. Now type these commands one by one (press Enter after each):
   
   CREATE DATABASE joomladb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;CREATE USER 'joomladbuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password_here';GRANT ALL ON joomladb.* TO 'joomladbuser'@'localhost';FLUSH PRIVILEGES;exit
   
   Replace your_password_here with a password you create.

Can’t use the command line? No problem! You can also create the database and user using phpMyAdmin:

1. In the XAMPP 🎛️ Control Panel, next to MySQL, click the Admin button.
2. In phpMyAdmin, click Databases, enter joomladb as the database name, and click Create.
3. Go to the Users tab, add a new user called joomladbuser with your chosen password, and give it all privileges on the joomladb database.

Step 3Download Joomla

To get Joomla running on your Windows 11 computer with XAMPP, the first step is to ⬇️ download the latest Joomla files from their official website.

1. Go to the official Joomla download page: https://downloads.joomla.org/
2. ⬇️ Download the latest Joomla zip file.
3. Open C:\xampp\htdocs on your computer.
4. Create a new folder here named joomla.
5. Extract all the Joomla files you downloaded into this joomla folder.

Your folder structure should look like C:\xampp\htdocs\joomla with Joomla files inside.

Step 4Make Joomla Show as Your Homepage

You can make Joomla your default homepage when you visit http://localhost on your Windows 11 computer by changing the index file in your XAMPP htdocs folder.

To do this, edit the file C:\xampp\htdocs\index.php (or index.html) and replace its content with this code:

<?php
if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && ($_SERVER['HTTPS'] == 'on')) {
$uri = 'https://';
} else {
$uri = 'http://';
}
$uri .= $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
header('Location: '.$uri.'/joomla/');
exit;
?>
Something is wrong with the XAMPP installation :-(

1. Save the file.
2. Restart Apache in the XAMPP 🎛️ Control Panel by clicking Stop and then Start.

Step 5Open Joomla in Your Browser

After setting up your Joomla files and database, you can start the installation by simply opening http://localhost in your web browser on Windows 11.

http://localhost/

You should see the Joomla installation page.

Follow the steps on screen:

1. Choose your language and enter your website’s name.
2. Click Next.
3. Set up your admin account by entering your name, username, password, and email.
4. Click Next.
5. On the database page, enter:

   • Database Type: MySQLi
   • Host: localhost
   • Username: joomladbuser
   • Password: the password you created earlier
   • Database Name: joomladb
6. Click Install Joomla.

Once installation is complete, you will see a success message.

Congratulations! Your Joomla website is now ready to use on your Windows 11 computer.

Summary

• XAMPP lets you run Joomla on your PC without needing the internet.
• You created a database for Joomla using either the command line or phpMyAdmin.
• You downloaded Joomla and placed it in the right folder inside XAMPP.
• You changed the homepage to open Joomla by default.
• You completed the Joomla setup by following the installation wizard in your browser.

This guide showed you how to install Joomla on your Windows 11 computer using XAMPP, allowing you to run it offline.