How to Install WAMP Server on Windows

Apache (HTTP Server), MySQL or MariaDB and PHP are the minimum required tools to start a Web Application Development on Local Desktop. These tools are open source and work on Windows, Linux and Mac operating system. You can install these independently but it would be time-consuming and difficult to maintain.

There are tools available like XAMPP, WAMP, LAMP, MAMP which package all these together to make your job easy. WAMP Server is such package available for Microsoft Windows.

Pre-requisite

Basic software installation knowledge on Microsoft Windows Operating System.

Software/Hardware

Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
WAMP Server

Wamp Server

WAMP is an abbreviated name for Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP. It provides Apache, MySQL, and PHP software stack on Windows Operating System. It is available only for Windows platform ( 32 bit and 64 bit), unlike XAMPP which is cross-platform and available for Windows, Linux and MAC operating system.

Note: wamp for Linux or wamp for Mac does not exist. You should use XAMP, LAMP, MAMP for the respective operating system.

Features ( Source – http://www.wampserver.com/en/),

Manage your Apache, MySQL and MariaDB services
Install and switch Apache, MySQL, MariaDB and PHP releases
Manage your servers settings
Access your logs
Access your settings files
Create alias
Use VirtualHost as hosters

Before moving further with installation read below points carefully.

Wampserver 3 does not support Windows XP even SP3.
Wampserver requires a disk or formatted NTFS partition. Does not support FAT32 or exFAT
Make sure you are “up to date” in the redistributable packages VC9, VC10, VC11, VC13, VC14, and VC15
Do not install Wampserver OVER an existing version
Install Wampserver in a folder at the root of a disk, for example, C:\wamp or D:\wamp. Take an installation path that does not include spaces or diacritics
Install Wampserver “as an administrator” i.e Right-Click on installer file then Run as an administrator.
Close Skype or force not to use port 80

You can read this forum article to better understand the prerequisite.

Wamp Server Download

WampServer is available for free (under GPML license). Click this link to download the latest version from the official site.

This page always shows the latest release which is 3.1.0 at the time of writing this article. Always download the latest one.

The wamp latest version provides below tools,

Apache 2.4.27
PHP 5.6.31, 7.0.23, 7.1.9
MySQL 5.7.19
MariaDB 10.2.8
PhpMyAdmin 4.7.4
Adminer 4.3.1
PhpSysInfo 3.2.7

Use below links to download the individual file.

Wamp Server 64 bit download – Use this installer if your desktop is 64 bit.

Wamp Server 32 bit download – Use this installer if your desktop is 64 bit or 32 bit, should work on both.

Install WampServer

Now let’s see how to Install Wamp Server. This is a wizard-driven installation. It provides steps by step instructions with default options. Don’t change it unless you know what you are doing.

Let’s start……….

Step 1 – Select Setup Language

Double-click on the downloaded file to start the installation. Wamp supports English and Francisca only. I am going to choose English. Choose as per your preference and click Ok.

Step 2 – License Agreement

It is available as free. Go through the terms mention in License Agreement windows. Click I accept the Agreement check box at the end of the screen. Click next.

Step 3: Read Information

Read the instruction given below carefully. This provides some useful information about wamp installation and usage.

Step 4 – Select destination location

Next, choose the destination location. The default is wamp64. You can change it if you want, but make sure there is no space in a folder name.

Step 5 – Start menu folder

Select start menu folder where setup should create the program’s shortcuts. It also defaults to Wampserver64. You can change it if you want to have a different folder

Step 6 – Ready to install

Next, the screen lists down all the selected options by you like Destination Location and Start Menu folder. This is the last chance to change it. Hit the Back button if you want to change it else click the Install button.