Manual:Streamlined Windows Install Guide

This guide provides a relatively-easy way to install MediaWiki in a Windows PC. It has been tested on Windows XP SP 2, but not yet on Windows Vista.

Requirements

 * Apache Version 2.2.2
 * MySQL Community Edition Version 5.0.21
 * PHP Version 5.1.3
 * Mediawiki Version 1.6.7 or later

While not necessary, PHPmyAdmin Version 2.8.0.3 is an extremely useful utility for management of the wiki.

Apache
Here we assume you don't want to compile the sources yourself, so just go to any Apache download mirror (e.g. this one), select the appropriate platform and then the file you want (see version number etc). Version 2.2.2 without SSL was used here. It is 4.2 MB in size.


 * 1) Download the file and execute it. Use the following settings in the installation wizard:
 * 2) * installed as a service,
 * 3) * any domain in the domain field, any server name in servername and an appropriate email-address in the email field.
 * 4) * Select "typical installation", for all users, as a service,
 * 5) * install to e.g.  (from here on, we will refer to this folder as.
 * 6) * A few users have had installation issues with filepaths that contain spaces, but others have not, so it is a good idea to not use spaces in the file directories.

MySQL
Use the MySQL 5.0 Community Edition &mdash; the installer file for Windows is 16.4 MB, and it was the version used in this installer.
 * 1) Make sure to turn off any firewalls or anti-virus software. These will make your life impossible and not let you install things correctly.
 * 2) Run the installer, and make sure you use the typical installation to e.g..
 * 3) Immediately after the installation finishes, the wizard offers you the opportunity to configure. Use it, and use the following settings:
 * 4) * Standard configuration (no other MySQL on this computer)
 * 5) * Run as a service
 * 6) * don't check bin paths,
 * [[Image:Bulbgraph.png|20px|]] Note:
 * Other guides (e.g. http://oss.segetech.com/wamp.html) suggest that it is absolutely necessary to check bin paths. My setup was not working (I got the "Could not find a suitable database driver!" error) and reconfigured MySQL to check bin paths; after a restart it worked. Unfortunately I had changed other settings so I can't be sure this was the problem.
 * 1) * Enter a root password
 * [[Image:Bulbgraph.png|20px|]] Note:
 * The root user must retain the name "root", as otherwise MediaWiki's installation script has problems during the initial installation.
 * 1) * no anonymous account
 * 2) * At the end, let MySQL's do its processing of the configuration.
 * [[Image:Bulbgraph.png|20px|]] Note:
 * Port 3306 has to be open for the current subnet, as otherwise the configuration can't be done. The wizard can remain open while opening the port and the processing started again afterwards. MySQL then uses about 57 MB of disk space.
 * 1) Test your installation by opening the MS-DOS command prompt (not MySQL's!), starting and stopping the MySQL server service by typing , followed by.

PHP
Make a manual installation using the zipped snapshot version (9 MB, 20 MB unzipped). While the CGI script can work, the zipped version contains all the necessary files, and does not require any additional downloads, so it is recommended.
 * 1) Just unzip to a local folder&mdash;e.g.  (from here on called  )
 * 2) Rename the file  in   to
 * [[Image:Bulbgraph.png|20px]] Note:
 * My experience installing under Windows XP was that the following needed to be performed also:
 * Copy php.ini-recommended to [Apache installation path]\conf\php.ini
 * --Myscha (novawoman@hotmail.com)
 * 1) Open the  file:
 * 2) Near the middle of the file, change the   directive line, so it reads   (or a different value if you installed your extensions in a different folder)
 * 3) Uncomment the   and   extensions by removing the semicolons that begin their respective lines (quite far at the back, under the heading "Windows extensions")
 * 4) In order to connect PHP to the Apache server as a module, you have to change the  (in  ) by adding the following text to the end of the file:
 * 5) the entry   needs to be expanded to:
 * 6) Expand the system variable  by the adding a semicolon, followed by the PHP directory   To do this, you can right-click on "My Computer", which will bring up the System Control Panel dialog box. If you do this, you can skip to substep three:
 * 7) Open the Start Menu, and point to Settings/Control Panel.
 * 8) Select "System" from the Classic view.
 * 9) Select the "Advanced" tab.
 * 10) Click on "Environmental variables"
 * 11) On the "System" section, look for the   variable.
 * 12) Click on "edit"
 * 13) Add the PHP entry to the variable, by entering , as described above.
 * 14) Restart the computer, as it is necessary at this point.
 * 1) Restart the computer, as it is necessary at this point.

MediaWiki
Download a release of MediaWiki. If you're looking to provide patches and help in development, use the version from SVN; if you are going to be an end user, and are not very concerned with having the latest features, download a stable release.
 * 1) Unzip your copy into   The file unzips from 2,7 MB to 10,5 MB.
 * 2) Rename the new directory to whatever you would like to have in the URL. If your apache server is running as   for example, installing MediaWiki on   would mean you would access your wiki at.
 * 3) In order to set up the wiki itself, open a browser of your choice and type in the URL from above. A page will appear that tells you that the wiki is not set up, and that you need to do that first.
 * 4) Click the appropriate link and then fill in form. The rest is done automatically.
 * If you check the box for "superuser", you will not need to supply a password for db access.
 * 1) After the setup, you are told to move a configuration file from one directory to its parent.

Heureka, the Wiki can be visited!

Timespan: if everything goes well, less than an hour, including download (on a good connection ;-)) What to check if it does not work:
 * Are the necessary ports open? (80 for Apache, 3306 for MySQL)
 * Apache is installed to a path that is free of blanks?
 * Patch for php5apache2.dll and manifest copied to appropriate places?
 * .NET installed on the computer or the runtime that is necessary otherwise?
 * Browsercache is empty?

PHPMyAdmin

 * 1) Download the installation file.
 * 2) Unzip to   (or whatever folder you configured as the Apache server's document root)(henceforth ).
 * 3) You can rename the new directory to something easier to remember, such as e.g.  . the zip has 3.7MB, 12.5 MB unzipped

Troubleshooting

 * If you receive the error "Could not find a suitable database driver! * For MySQL, compile PHP using --with-mysql, or install the mysql.so module" then make sure that the  and   files are accessible to Apache. One way to do this is to place them in the directory   in order to make the wiki work. Another way to do this is to copy   to the system directory.
 * If Apache cannot find, it may be because it was placed in the Windows folder in your hard drive.Make sure that   points to wherever it is located.
 * If you are using Windows XP, you may need to add the directory in which you installed PHP to the  in all MediaWiki php files to  ) and add the extracted MediaWiki folder to it. Then open a browser to the directory of   (see: note0) (X's represent the file version you downloaded) and run the web-based installation script.
 * 1) After the installation, once the wiki is started for the first time, a configuration screen will come up. Before doing the configuration you will have to set the password for the root user of your mysql server. see the main installation manual and m:MySQL_config.
 * 2) Once the configuration is completed, when you will be able to go to the home page now, where you will get the message, " " Move the file  to the   directory.


 * XAMPP provides MediaWiki-specific help at http://www.nat32.com/xampp/index.htm.

note0: (Sam - SunFish7@Gmail.com) This process took me hours: I'll detail what I did to finally get it working. Please someone format nicely and amend this 'til it is accurate!

this brings up XAMPP configuration window here I a) created a database: phpMyAdmin -> create new database -> MyNewDB, set the type to utf8_unicode_ci ) (note1) b) set a user:pass for root.   for me  root:secret now the mediawiki configuration screen comes filling it out, I had to check the superuser checkbox at the bottom, below the database stuff. I cannot quite remember what I put for the database fields ( because now I cannot get the same screen to come up again - I would have to re-install everything ).  am pretty sure I had to use the same name for the database I created earlier.  as for user name password I think you can make anything up.
 * 1) 1 first I installed XAMPP. but it wouldn't run Apache.  this was because Apache required port 80.  netstat -anb  revealed skype was using port 80.  so I had to kill skype.
 * 2) 2 next I pointed my browser to /localhost
 * 1) 3 next I downloaded the most recent version of mediawiki, renamed & moved it into C:\xampp\htdocs\MyWiki
 * 2) 4 pointed my browser to /localhost/MyWiki

note1: I am not sure if it is necessary to create a database at this stage. because when I did this is it still did not work. but as soon as I created the root login:password, then it worked. so I suggest you try without creating a database at this stage, (ie see whether it gets automatically created later ) and please then amend this documentation.