As mentioned in recent articles, working offline has lots of advantages rather than using WordPress online with real host. Especially when you are working as a developer. As, you can edit, customize, and watch the results before being sent online. If you are working with WordPress for development reasons, such as building themes and plugins, you will absolutely need to Install WordPress by a localhost server locally. DesktopServer is one of the most featured applications that allows you to have a localhost in less than 5 minutes. Therefore, now we will focus on how to Install WordPress locally with DesktopServer. it is necessary to mention that if you have MacOS on your system, you need to use MAMP to install WordPress locally.
In this article, we are going to guide you step by step to install DesktopServer on your computer to be able to install WordPress or even for other development purposes. The most fantastic feature of DesktopServer is the ability to work with multi-sites in real-time. However, note that, as it presents both the free and premium versions, by using the free one, only three sites can be loaded with one server. Therefore, for simultaneously working with more than three websites, and for more dedicated options, you can upgrade the free version by paying $99.95/year.
Steps to Install WordPress locally with DesktopServer
Downloading DesktopServer
Head to the official serverpress website, where you can find the appropriate version of the application. Scroll down the page to see the free version. Proceed to download it, which may take some time as the size is more than 400 MB.
Installing DesktopServer
After downloading the application, start the file for installing it on your computer as the administrator. As I am working with a Windows computer, I have downloaded the Windows version. Find the installer icon and start the installation process.
At first, the installer prompts you to start as an administrator user. Click Continue to go on:
The next window that will prompt shows you the program Licence Agreement that you have to accept the terms to be allowed to continue:
Now, in the next screen let the New DesktopServer item be checked, and click Continue:
Then, the application starts to install and extract the files into the default location on your computer:
- Mac: Macintosh HD / Applications / XAMPP /
- Windows: C:/ xampplite /
At last, when all the files have been extracted to the correct directory, click Finish to complete the installation process:
Server Configuration
DesktopServer has the ability to configure and install WordPress using its Blueprint folder automatically. To do so, download the latest version of WordPress from WordPress.org and place it in the blueprint folder, in the root directory. However, the new version of DesktopServer will do the massive job, and while downloading the program, the WordPress zip file has already been placed in the folder.
The next screen wants you to restart DesktopServer with privileges in order to appropriately create, modify, and start the web service. So, click next for further configuration:
Another prompt will be shown to you that declares the database services are not running yet, and you need to activate the Apache server and MySQL database server. For this purpose, let the item be checked as Yes. Start Apache and MySQL services and click Next to continue to the final step.
*You may see two firewall security alert popup windows that want your attention for giving them access to active Apache and MySQL services. So, allow access and go on to the final step.
As you click next, when the starting servers process is done, You have to create a new development website:
Creating a new development website
In this prompt, you have to select a site name; I have chosen test as it is actually a test tutorial. You can see the version of WordPress inside the Blueprint folder in the second tab. And the final text area is where your site root spotted. For example for my test site, www.test.dev.cc\
Wait for the program to create your new website, and finally, the link to your admin dashboard will be displayed.
As mentioned before, the important feature of DesktopServer is its ability to handle multi-sites in real-time. However, only three sites are allowed in the free version. For accessing the lists of your websites, head to the localhost URL in your browser. Here, you will find the lists of the site’s name.
Final advice about Installing WordPress locally with DesktopServer
As running a localhost server on your computer put loads on your processor, do not forget to stop the web and database services after finishing your development job.
Conclusion: Install WordPress locally with DesktopServer
In this article, we focus on how to locally install DesktopServer for building a local server on your computer. We discussed these details intending to build a WordPress website on a computer. However, as we showed you the famous 5-minute WordPress installation before, we didn’t cover it in this article.
