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Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

Oct19

Written by:
2009/10/19 09:56 AM RssIcon

WordPress-Logo Wordpress is probably the most used and most famous blogging software around today. A lot of CMS’s do have blog modules within the CMS. But they are either limited or the CMS is too much overkill for just a blog. Traditionally Wordpress requirements are Linux, PHP, and Apache. But what about Vista and IIS7? Would it work?

I have used Wordpress on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment before, but wanted to see if I could get it to work on a Windows Vista environment, WIMP (Windows, IIS, MySQL, PHP). I browsed a few Wordpress sites including Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org, but there is not much mentioned about installing Wordpress on a windows environment. I suppose the preferred environment is Linux.

I had already installed PHP 5.2, as well as MySQL 5. The requirement for Wordpress was PHP 4.3 and MySQL 4.0. So I was ok there. I just had to download and install Wordpress. I went to the Wordpress download site and downloaded Wordpress 2.8.4

Installing Wordpress is pretty simple. It is just a matter of unzipping the zip file into a folder. Make the needed corrections and viola. Following this installation guide was a great help.

IIS7.0

In IIS Management console, create a site and bind the site to the needed port. I used 8081 because I had other stuff running on port 80, and this was just a test anyway and port numbers will not make a difference.

FastCGI.

Most newer and recent PHP applications require FastCGI to work correctly with IIS. FastCGI is preinstalled if you have Vista SP1 and IIS7.0, but for IIS 6 you have to install the FastCGI module.  More information about the update is available here.

Seeing that I had already installed FastCGI when installing Joomla, I felt that I did not need to go through this process again. If you want to follow my direction, then browse to my blog post; Installing Joomla onto Vista, IIS7 with PHP5.2 and MySQL 5. Although I go through a lot of stuff for Joomla, the IIS/PHP installation and configuration will work.

But here is a short recap. You can add the CGI feature by going to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off.  This enables both the CGI and FastCGI services. If it is already checked, it was suggested that I uncheck it, restart vista, then recheck it to add the feature back again and restart Vista.

MySQL Wordpress Database.

Next thing to do was to create the MySQL database for Wordpress. Once again a pretty simple thing. You have to create a database as well as a user. I created a database called wordpress, and a user called wordpress. Not very original I know.

You can create the database and user in various ways. I used a MySQL Client management tool called EMS SQL manager for MySQL. I used the freeware version.

Or you can use the command line. Follow the instructions at the wordpress.org site or the same instructions found in the zip file.

Or you can use an online tool like phpMyAdmin, which is a browser based MySQL configuration tool.

Configuring Wordpress.

Once again, configuring wordpress was easy. Just a matter of following the instructions in creating and changing the wp-config.php file. All I had to do is open the wp-config-sample file. Make the necessary changes and save as wp-config.php. here is an example

/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');
/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'wordpress');
/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'mypassword');
/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define('DB_COLLATE', '');

IIS 7 URL Rewrite Module support

WordPress development community has added a built-in support for IIS 7 URL Rewrite Module in the upcoming WordPress 2.8 release. Starting with version 2.8 the Permalink Settings page will allow you to easily configure “pretty permalinks” URL structure when WordPress is running on IIS 7 with URL Rewrite Module v1.1 installed.

Seeing that I had already installed the Rewrite Module, I did not need to do anything else.

Running WordPress

Now that I had all the preliminaries done, it was just a matter of running the wordpress blog to see if it all worked. I decided to run the WordPress install script just in case I missed something. localhost:8081/wp-admin/install.php was what it was. Replace the localhost and port to what ever you used and installed as.

You will find that the WordPress welcome screen is now shown. You can now configure the following — use your own info:

Blog Title: The Brave WordPress Blogger
Your E-mail: email
Click Install Wordpress after you are done.

For a fantastic tutorial and detailed instructions on how to install WordPress with IIS7 including PHP and MySQL go to this fantastic Tutorial, Installing WordPress on IIS 7 – Part 1

Following the instructions and filling in what is needed is all that you would need to do. You are then given an admin username and generated password, which you can change later, and your WordPress blog is up and running.

Conclusion

I found this installation a lot simpler than I had expected and a lot easier than the Joomla installation. Perhaps because I had already done a whole lot of work when installing Joomla. Nevertheless it was a breeze.

I plan to use WordPress when I go to the UK for a month. Doing this install gave me come confidence that I would be able to use wordpress on any platform, whether I choose to use Linux or Windows.

Are you using Wordpress? What is it like? Have you installed Wordpress on Windows and IIS? Have you had any issues? Please let us know you thoughts in the comment box below.

Related Reading:

Installing Joomla onto Vista, IIS7 with PHP5.2 and MySQL 5

Which is better Blogger.com vs Wordpress.com?

Writing PHP Code in Visual Studio

Is PHP a skill set or a professional track.

C# (.NET) vs PHP Which is a better web development platform

 

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11 comment(s) so far...


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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

Thanks! I installed Wamp over the weekend and had to disable IIS due to port clashes. Was not sure if and how to run WP test site on Vista. I will give it a go this weekend coming. One thing, do you have to install php and mysql seperate?

By Rustig on  2009/10/19 10:05 AM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

Just remember to bind the WP site to a different port. I used 8081, then it works. You could bind this port to either IIS or Apache.
I did install PHP and MySQL separate, but that's because I had to. I was using MySQL for another project, as well as PHP for a separate project.
I had used the WAMP installation before but not on Vista. Wanted to use IIS instead of Apache, so opted to go for separate installations

By Robert Bravery on  2009/10/19 10:20 AM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

I've used XAMP with success on Vista 64bit ultimate. When installing XAMP, MySQL and PHP is installed automatically. Installing Wordpress in this setup is a breeze.

Beyond this I cannot give any more info, because I installed it to learn how to make my own blog themes and being a NOOOOB myself.

By Abraham van der Linde on  2009/10/19 10:41 AM

Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

Wordpress is probably the most used and most famous blogging software around today. A lot of CMS’s do have blog modules within the CMS. But they are either limited or the CMS is too much overkill for just a blog. Traditionally Wordpress requirements are Linux, PHP, and Apache. But what about Vista and IIS7? Would it work?
# ZillionsB.com

By TrackBack on  2009/10/19 10:51 AM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

I've been using XAMP with Vista Ultimate 64bit with success. Installing Wordpress on this setup is a breeze. PHP and MySQL is installed automatically with the installation of XAMP.

Beyond this I cannot give any more info, Because I'm still a NOOB myself and just did the above installation to learn how to code my own WordPress themes.

By Abraham van der Linde on  2009/10/19 10:46 AM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

@Abraham,

Thanks for the comment and encouragement. The main reason I installed Wordpress on to my vista PC, was that I wanted to develop WP plugins using Visual Studio, and debug and test. VS uses IIS.

By Robert Bravery on  2009/10/19 10:58 AM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

Thanks for the info. I've always been developing Wordpress modules on LAMP and never even thought about Vista + IIS 7. Learnt something new today!

By AntonRSA on  2009/10/19 11:07 AM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

The port issue was the reason for me disabling IIS. Silly question? Where do you change the port settings?

By Rustig on  2009/10/19 11:23 AM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

In IIS management console, right click on the wordpress website. Select edit binding. Change the port number in the appropriate text box. Select Ok, restart your site. Then access your site through the localhost or ipaddress you set it up with, supplying the port number at the end after a colon.
eg http://localhost:8081
Hope it helps.
Let me know

By Robert Bravery on  2009/10/19 11:54 AM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

I have used WordPress locally for a couple of projects, though not on Vista. My current favorite install is on a USB stick with XAMPP on it. Works on any PC I've tried it on. I installed several flavors of Drupal on there for good measure.

By Tscet on  2009/10/19 05:59 PM
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Re: Using Wordpress on Vista and IIS 7.0

Doug,

You will have to share that with us. Sounds like a good plan. Maybe one of us could write a blog post about it. Would love to know how and what you did.

By Robert Bravery on  2009/10/19 07:47 PM
 
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