Howdy,
but I still can't set up the wp-config.php file.
How, exactly, are you determining this? I use both XAMPP and WAMP on Win 7 - 64 bit with no issues. What is the error? What is or is not happening?
Do you (did you) have XAMPP or WAMP running when you were attempting the installation? (they HAVE to be running! ... Apache and MySQL)
I'll go through it with you right now (working on my Win 7 64 bit system):
A. - Start XAMPP 1.7.3
1) start the XAMPP Control Panel (1.7.3 is what I am using)
2) Apache - click Start (do NOT tick the Svc box!); the green 'Running' appears
3) MySQL - click Start (do NOT tick the Svc box!); the green 'Running' appears
4) minimize the Control Panel as both required servers are now running'
B. - Get the WP package ready for installation
1) Start > Computer > XAMPP > htdocs
2) create a new folder at this location and name it mywordpress (just like that, lower case, no spaces)
3) paste into this folder, the WP package ZIP that you downloaded
4) right click the ZIP file and select Open with > Windows Explorer
5) a new window will appear with a wordpress folder in it; double click this wordpress folder
6) right click anywhere in the clear (that is, NOT on a file or folder) and select Extract All ...
7) edit the default path displayed in the resulting popup dialog so that it is C:\xampp\htdocs\mywordpress
8) you will now have in your /mywordpress folder, the wordpress ZIP and the wordpress folder
9) open the wordpress folder, select ALL the files and folders and the cut and paste them into the mywordpress folder (basically "moving them up a level")
10) NOW you are ready to start the installation process
C. - WordPress Installation
1) in your fave browser (which should be Chrome or Firefox :)), enter localhost/xampp into the address bar and click Enter
2) click phpMyAdmin in Tools (lower left)
3) in the right pane under MySQL localhost > Create new database, enter mywordpress and click Create (you can name it anything you like, lower case, no spaces, but for this example, let's keep it simple and use the same name as the folder)
4) when the "Database mywordpress has been created." appears, enter localhost/mywordpress into the address bar and press Enter
5) click the "Create a Configuration File" button
6) at the next screen, click the "Let's go!" button
7) enter the following values for the database connection details:
- Database Name: mywordpress
- User Name: root
- Password: EMPTY!!! make SURE there is NOTHING in this field, not even a space!
- Database Host: localhost
- Table Prefix: wp_
8) click the "Submit" button
NOTES:
i)The database connection details confuse a LOT of folks! The key point here is that this has absolutely NOTHING to do with accessing the Admin area of your WordPress site!!!
ii) And even more importantly, YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY OPTIONS HERE FOR USER NAME, PASSWORD and DATABASE HOST!!! THEY ARE TOTALLY DEPENDENT UPON WHICH LOCAL SERVER YOU ARE USING!!!
iii) For local installs, leave the Database Prefix as it is, wp_, for simplicity's sake
9) OK there "sparky", go ahead and click that "Run the install" button :)
10) at the next screen, fill out as desired, with the following notes:
i) for local sites ONLY, I always leave the Username as admin
ii) for local sites ONLY, I always use 123123 for the password as it's so easy to type and I'm lazy :)
iii) put whatever you want for an email (it can NOT be empty or in a non-email format), but be advised, on a local install with one of the local server stacks (XAMPP in this case), you will NOT, by DEFAULT, have mail services; that is an additional function that is NOT covered in this example
iv) optionally, un-check the "Allow my site to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati."
11) click the "Install WordPress" button
12) at the next screen, click the "Log In" button
13) enter the Username and Password you entered in Step C.10) above (admin/123123 in this example)
14) :) there's the "back end" of your new, local WordPress site! :)
15) to access the "front end", in a new tab enter localhost/mywordpress into the address bar and press Enter
16) remember, to access the admin log in, the address is localhost/mywordpress/wp-admin
NOTES:
i) remember that XAMPP (or whatever "stack" <XAMPP, WAMP, Uniform Server, etc.> you are using) HAS TO BE RUNNING (Apache and MySQL) for you to access your local sites, front or back
ii) this local server is not limited to WordPress; you can also install other scripts such as Joomla!, Drupal, PrestaShop, eFront, Moodle, etc.; installation procedures are similar, notably the database connection details are THE SAME!!!(for the same "stack") user: root, password: <empty>, database host: localhost; you still have to create a new database in advance with phpMyAdmin (C. 1,2,3)
iii) you can have as many local sites as you have hard disk space for! If you think you "screwed one up", just start a new one :) ... takes less than 5 minutes once you do a few :)
Enjoy! :)
Cheers!
Lyle