As a WordPress user, having WordPress installed locally is always a big advantage when it comes to testing anything.
I have been using WAMP to install WordPress locally. But after every OS install, it becomes a tedious job to install WAMP and configure it every time.
Though if you are the geeky type, you can refer to our previous tutorials on installing WordPress on your desktop:
Why do you need a local WordPress installation?
Having a locally installed WordPress DB is hardly recommend for every WordPress blogger. It’s useful so that you can try every plugin locally before installing it on your live site. Also, if you want to customize your theme, it’s always a good idea to make changes locally and then make it live on your site.
If you are a blogger who is blogging on the BlogSpot platform and wishes to move to WordPress, this is a perfect start. You can use Instant WordPress and get comfortable with the WordPress dashboard and understand how it works.
This locally installed WordPress DB will do everything which a live WordPress site on the internet can do.
Instant WordPress:
Here I’m talking about a useful free software called Instant WordPress and, as the name suggests, you can get started with WordPress on any local system instantly.
This is portable software; this means you can install it on your pen drive or install it on any drive and even after a reinstallation of your OS, you will not lose anything.
The best part about Instant WordPress is you don’t need to configure anything. Simply install Instant WordPress and your local WordPress site is up and running without any hassle.
Here is a screenshot of this software and you can clearly see how easy it is to use:
Getting started with Instant WordPress:
Once you have installed Instant WordPress, you need to go to the installed directory and click on instantWP.exe. It will bring up a screen as shown above. You can directly click on “WordPress Admin” to login to your admin area.
Username and password will be: “admin” and “password” respectively.
You can also access your PHPMyAdmin by clicking on MySQLAdmin.
Installing plugins and themes are also easy. You can always install plugins and themes from your local WordPress dashboard or you can use the Instant WordPress dashboard to upload plugins and themes.
PHPMyAdmin can also be accessed this way, and if you wish to try WordPress SQL queries, this is one of the best and easiest ways to test any SQL query for WordPress.
Instant WordPress also comes with dummy WordPress content, so you can simply get started testing themes or plugins.
As I mentioned above, you can also install it on a USB drive, so if you have to give a presentation to a client or teach others about WordPress, all you need to do is carry your USB with you.
Plug into any laptop or desktop and your WordPress DB is ready to be launched.
After using this small WordPress software, I suggest you download it and enjoy the power of local WordPress on your desktop.
It’s a free to use software and runs only on Windows.
Do let me know if you have used Instant WordPress or any other similar software to enjoy WordPress on your local system. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Hi I have installed instant WordPress n its working fine. I used it to create an Intranet site for my company to share information internally. But the problem now is how do i share Instant WordPress so other colleagues can access it and post, read or download in information on the intranet website on the Instant WordPress. I have already created the users n pages.
@Kwaku
I’m not sure about this as I haven’t tried this. I think it might work better if you use Mamp or Wamp to install server & share your Lan I.P with others. Again, you need to test it out & let me know what trick worked for you!
after making the webiste with Instant press, i cant get it online, this doesnt make any sense, after several days, anyone who can help ?
is it possible to run Instant WP on a localhost before going live? this without installing WP with XAMP or WAMP.
thx in advance.
@Joel
Yes this is what InstantWp is for. It works without XAMP or WAMp.
I have downloaded and installed Instant WordPress 4.3.1 on my PC and it does not work.
Everyone talks about how easy it is to instal and run Instant WordPress on their local PC. I have a problem with Instant WordPress 4.3.1 running on my PC. I have downloaded and installed it many times and I am really very frustrated because it is now working for me. After installing and re-installing it on my PC running Windows 7 and each time clicking on the InstantWP.exe to launch the program, a window opens with a “Redirecting…” message and nothing happens even though I let it keep directing for 5 minutes. I tried to run it as an administrator on my desktop and on my C:\ drive without luck.
Does anyone know how to fix this problem so that I can begin to use the Instant WordPress on my PC? Thanks in advance for any solution.
I have the same “redirecting” problem – anybody come up with an answer to this problem?
Thanks
I’ve tried XAMP, WampServer, AMPPS, Bitnami, and Instant WordPress.
With Instant WordPress I couldn’t get it working on the local Network (access it from other computers) but it worked fine on the installed computer. Using Duplicator Plugin to migrate the WP webpage to a live environment (internet host) was just to easy.
Now I’m using WampServer installed in a Virtual Machine (Virtual Box) and am able to access it on the local network… and from the internet if needed.
Benefits of accessing WP from a local network are obvious. Our biggest benefit is Developers in the office can now access the sites.
Really would like to see a write up on the Duplicator Plugin for WordPress. Every half decent Web Dev needs to know about it.
@Chook
Duplicator plugin is in my To-do list and will do a write up after trying and testing it…
Right now I’m using WordPress on my local Mac server using Mamp, and it works great..!! Thanks for your valuable comment and inputs…
I’m looking forward to seeing your experiences with the Duplicator plugin.
I would be very surprised if you didn’t smile for a whole day (as I did) after using it 🙂
I use Duplicator with InstantWP. I have written about it on my site and included some warnings and workaround solutions tomsome problems including timeouts etc
Instant WordPress is Easy to install, and Easy to Use. There really isn’t much to it.
Once installed, started, logged into wp admin area, update wp from there and install themes, all just nice and easy. No need to install anything else.
But to get your wp site from Instant WordPress to the Web will take a process that are NOT INCLUDED IN ANY INSTRUCTIONS with the installations.
The FAQ suggest you read the “Instant WordPress Unleashed manual” but it COST $27 !
This should have been made more transparent before committing to Instant WordPress.
Although I do appreciate the work gone into Instant WordPress, being charged a fee to learn it was a bit disappointing. ($5 would have been fine)
i see that i can download InstantWP for free. I suspect that deploying it will require me to buy something as I see only one page mentioning deployment and they charge for the information. This would fit the internet model of getting someone half-way there and then charging them to make the solution truly useful. Any suggestions?
Instant WP is open source, so you will not be charged for anything. 🙂
This is their github repository: https://github.com/corvideon/InstantWP
Thanks for the tip! I just started using Instant WordPress, configured my site, but when I went to upload it, all the text was there, but my theme customizations (i.e. custom header, logo, background, menu order & colors, etc.) are all lost. Any thoughts or tips are greatly appreciated! 🙂
Its an awesome tool to customize your WP theme. But i want to know how can i transfer my customize theme from Instant WP to live domain????Thanx in advance
Thank you for this information. I have used it but I need assistance on how to publish or upload the site already designed with Instant WP to my website on the net. Thank you.
I installed Instant WordPress on my computer which installed WordPress 3.2. It would not update automatically. I downloaded WordPress 3.3.1 myself but re-named file to wp-config.php. However I’m not sure what database name to use, and in any case wordpad won’t let me make any changes to the file. Can you help? I’ve asked this question at wordpress.org and also of the instant wordpress developer and had no replies.
thanks in advance
I use XAMPP. This seems to be new. I will surely try this app.
XAMPP is too difficult to operate. I am downloading this now. Hope this will be more user friendly
I have installed wordpress directly from hostagator a/c.
I would surely give it a try as i have just lost my local wordpress installation along with it’s database and plugins. So i think this can save my life. Though i am very much comfortable with wamp.
Downloading it, will use it to test the theme and design for our upcoming project, earlier we were using apache server for that purpose but that is not that handy. Thanks for Sharing.
Nice Software but I will stuck with XAMPP. This software includes
WordPress 3.2
Apache 2.2.15 (Win32)
PHP 5.3.2
MySQL 5.1.46-community-nt
and is 54MB in size.
54 mb of downloading ?(apache ,php all again ) for me it’s not worth. Normal wamp method is good .
Hi Harsh,
This is a wonderful share, I have never used instant wordpress, I have been using WAMP for about 4 years… and is my favorite compared with XXAMP.
I will give a shot to instant wordpress a try now.. Thanks for sharing.
Imran
I am using wampserver. I think this one is more better for offline use.