MyBB is another free and open source forum software. It is intuitive, extensible, and incredibly powerful forum software. It offers good features like forums to threads, posts to private messages, search for profiles, and reputation to warnings. This forum has everything you need to have to run a community or forum website. There are a good number of themes and plugins available to extend functionality.

In this article, I will show you how to install MyBB forum software on Windows using XAMPP. This will help you to evaluate the forum before moving to production

Pre-Requisite

This tutorial assumes basic working knowledge of Windows Operating system.

Software/Tools

• Microsoft Windows 8.1/10 32/64 Bit Operating System (Buy from Microsoft Store
• XAMPP Version: 5.6.28– Free Apache Distribution
• MyBB 1.8.13

MyBB Installation Guide

Follow step by step for complete installation.

Download MyBB forum software

Download forums software from the official download page. 1.8.13 is the current version at the time of writing this article. It is a zip file. Click on Download MyBB 1.8.13 button shown in below image.

Start XAMPP Apache and MySQL service

Open XAMPP and start Apache and MySQL service. Both services are needed. Make sure Module icon turns green and PID(s) and Ports(s) are populated.

Create MYSQL Database and User

MyBB needs MySQL database to store database object. Open PHPMyAdmin create user and database.

Create MYSQL Database MyBB and User mybbadmin as shown below using phpMyAdmin dashboard.

Start forum installation wizard

Extract downloaded file to a drive. It has 2 folders upload and documentation. Rename upload folder to mybb and copy it to C:\xampp\htdocs folder where XAMPP is installed.

Open a web browser and type http://localhost/mybb on the address bar. It opens below a window and your installation is started.

Welcome

This is a welcome page which shown an overview of the installation process. There are different sections. You need to enter valid information and click on next. It is an easy to install Wizard Driven Installation.

License Agreement

Read License Agreement and click Next to progress further.

Requirements Check

MyBB installer checks all necessary requirement like PHP Version, Supported DB Extension, PHP XML extensions, etc. See the image below.

Database Configuration

Enter details like Database Engine, Hostname, Username and Password created in above steps. If you want you can change table pre-fix, else leave it as is.

Table Creation

This just shows table created to store database object by the installer. Just check the log, if no error click next.

Table Population

There is some default data which MyBB install in tables just created above.

Theme Insertion

This step inserts default theme and template file.

Board Configuration

Specify forum name, contact email, website name, etc. As I am installing on localhost I am not going to change website name.

Create Administrator Account

Create Admin Account. Enter the proper username and strong password for Admin user.

Finish Setup

This is final step and your forum should be ready.

Below is the dashboard.

Below is Admin Dashboard.

That’s it and MyBB forum software is installed successfully on Windows using XAMPP.

Next, you need to explore feature and take a decision if you want to go ahead with this forum for a production environment.