In this article we walk you though the process of seting up your WAMP system and configuring PHP, MySQL and installing Joomla on your Windows computer system.

The first thing we will do now that we have WAMP installed is install the Joomla files into our web directory.  By default that should be on your C: drive in a folder called wamp.  Find your Joomla download file, uncompress it into C:/wamp/www/
If you need a program to uncompress the file download a copy of WinZip.

There should be a new icon beside your windows clock that looks like a speedometer

We are going to have to change some of the default settings of WAMP to work correctly with Joomla.  So lets open up Crimson Editor then browse to the wamp folder on your C drive.  Goto the bin > mysql > mysql5.1.33 then open the file called my or my.cnf if you have extentions shown.

Find the line that say : #password       = your_password

Remove the # from in front of password, # is a comment, something used in the file to tell the program to skip this line.  Removing the # uncomments password so that mysql will read this line.

Next change your_password to root (or something else you will remember, but I will assume you used root)
Now save the file.

Go back to the C:/wamp directory and go to apps > phpmyadmin3.1.3.1 and open the file called config.inc.php.

Find the line that says : $cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = '';
At the end of the line between the two '' enter the mysql password root so the line should look like this:
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'root';
Save the file.

From the WAMP menu select MySQL > Service > Restart Service

Now lets create a new database using phpMyAdmin.  From the WAMP menu select phpMyAdmin, this will open the web based MySQL manager.  You should not have any errors on your screen if you set your passwords and restarted the server.  If you do, go back and check all the steps above.

Now lets create a database called Joomla in a UTF8 format.  In the text box below Create new database type in joomla (in lower case, its case sensitive) and select UTF8_bin from the drop down beside that.  Click Create and you should get a successful message.  "Database joomla has been created."

Now we can browse to our Joomla installation from your favourite web browser.  The address should be http://localhost which should automatically take you to http://localhost/installation/index.php.  You should see the Joomla installation screen prompting you to select your language, I assume you speak english, so go ahead and click next up in the top right of your screen.

Next you're going to see the screen that shows whether or not your server is configured correctly.  As we can see the default WAMP settings are close but we have failed a on a few settings.  Lets go ahead and change them now.

So as we can see, the issues that Joomla is complaining about are related to the php settings.  Display Errors are on and it should be off,  and Output Buffering is on and it should be off.  WAMP makes it easy to change this from the WAMP menu icon so lets go ahead and click on that select PHP > PHP Settings.  Now remove the check from beside Display Errors and Output Buffering.  Now Restart All Services from the WAMP menu.

Now if we go back to the Joomla Installation and hit the button for check again, in the top right hand corner, it should be happy.  Click on next and agree to the GNU General Public License by clicking next once again.

Now we are going to install the database.

The Database type is: mysql

Host Name is: localhost

Username is: root

Password is: root

Database Name is: joomla

It should look like the picture, click on next to see if we set it up right.

Next is the FTP settings, we will ignore them, and click on next.

Next we will name your site and set the admin password and email address.  Name your site whatever you would like, we can change it at anytime, so if you had not gotten that far just use a temporary name for now.

For the email address use your email address, the system should email you with any admin messages as long as your computer is hooked up to the internet when it sends them.

For the password set that to something that you will remember, its what you will be typing in to log into the back end of the site.

Next we will go ahead and install the Sample Data so we have something to work with once you start configuring your website.

Don't worry about Migration Data we will not be using that.  Click next and then we will finish up.

On the last screen you will be prompted to completely remove the installation directory.  Do this by opening the C: drive and browsing to the WAMP > www directory.  Find the Installation folder and throw it in the recycling bin.

Now you can pull up your web browser and go to your newly installed website.  Your homepage will be located at http://localhost/index.php

The admin area will be located at http://localhost/administrator/index.php

You can login using your Admin user account you just created.

Username : admin
Password : whatever you made it ;)

Congratulations, you have just setup and installed your first website!