Offline Installation

Hi all,

I am a complete beginner to WordPress (though I am hoping to change that soon). I have acquired some themes that I want to open up and play about with, get to know how it all works and how to customise the themes etc. but I am at a loss as to how to view the site/theme in the browser offline?

Can anyone advise or point me to a good article how to set up a local host to enable me to view the theme(s) on my own machine?

Many thanks,