How to install Concrete CMS in XAMPP Windows 11

Concrete CMS is an open-source content management system for publishing content. It has a website builder with built in tools make editing content easy. Its first stable release was on January 24, 2022. So, this CMS is quite a new one.

For this tutorial, I will show you how to install Concrete in your Windows 11 pc via XAMPP. First, you need to download the needed files below. I also included the direct links.

Requirements to install Concrete CMS in XAMPP using Windows 11 pc

• XAMPP 8.0.x, download here [via Mediafire]
• Concrete-cms-9.1.2, download here [via Mediafire]

Assuming that you already downloaded XAMPP and Concrete CMS continue doing the tutorials below.

Table of Contents

• XAMPP installation on Windows 11
• Running XAMPP Control Panel's Apache and MySQL
• Copying Concrete CMS installer to HTDOCS folder
• Creating Concrete CMS Database
• Concrete CMS installation via Localhost or 127.0.0.1
• Accessing Concrete CMS website home page
• Accessing Concrete CMS website ADMIN account

Here are the steps on how to install Concrete CMS in XAMPP using Windows 11 pc

XAMPP installation on Windows 11

1. Run your downloaded XAMPP file. If a Question appears about "running antivirus", just press YES to proceed.

2. In the Warning regarding "User Account Control" or (UAC), just press OK to continue.

3. Inside Setup's welcome page, press NEXT.

4. In the "Select Components", click on NEXT again.

5. In the "Installation folder' press the NEXT button again.

6. In Language select English or your own local language. Press NEXT to proceed.

7. In the "Ready to Install" press NEXT again.

8. Wait for the installation and unpacking to finish.

9. In the "Completing the XAMPP Setup Wizard" uncheck the "Do you want to start the Control Panel now?" and click Finish to exit.

Running XAMPP Control Panel's Apache and MySQL

1. Open XAMPP, you can search for it also if you cannot find it.

2. Inside XAMPP Control Panel, press the two Start buttons for Apache and MySQL.

3. When you see that the two Starts are now both Stop, this means that Apache and MySQL are already running.

4. If "Windows Defender Firewall has blocked some features of this of this app" appears, just press "Allow access" to proceed.

5. You can press the X button to minimize XAMPP Cpanel into the system tray.

Copying Concrete CMS installer to HTDOCS folder

1. Search "this pc" and open it.

2. Inside This PC, click your C drive.

3. Inside C drive, open the xampp folder.

4. Inside xampp folder, click on htdocs folder.

5. Now copy and paste your Concrete CMS folder inside the htdocs folder. (See image below)

Creating Concrete CMS Database

1. Before you start, make sure your XAMPP Control Panel is open, and Apache and MySQL are both running. Now, open your internet browser. For this tutorial, I will be using Google Chrome. In the address bar, type 127.0.0.1 (you can also use localhost) and press ENTER.

2. Inside, find and click on phpMyAdmin to proceed.

3. Inside phpMyAdmin, click on Database (see image below).

4. Inside Databases, in the Create database, type concretecms_db as your database name. Next to it, by default it is set to utf8mb4_general_ci, just leave it. Press the Create button to proceed.

5. In the Create new table, name your table as concretecms_table. For the number of columns leave it as 4. Press the Create button to proceed.

6. For the Structure name it as concretecms. Leave the Type as INT.

7. For Collation, select utf8_unicode_ci and for the remaining fields, just leave all of them blank.

8. Press Save to save your work.

Concrete CMS installation via Localhost or 127.0.0.1

1. Now, open your internet browser again and type 127.0.0.1 or localhost and press ENTER.

2. Inside "Install Concrete CMS / Choose Language" select English. Press the Arrow to proceed.

3. Under "Testing Environment" just leave it and press the Continue to installation button.

4. In the Site Information, name your website anything you want, enter your admin email address (Gmail, etc)., enter also your admin password and confirm it. Do not forget your admin password. You can write on a piece of paper or Notepad for future use. When done, proceed to "Starting Point" below.

5. In the Starting Point, by default Full Site (Atomik) is selected, just leave it.

6. Under Database, do the following configuration. Server is localhost, MySQL Username is root, MySQL password is blank, and Database name is the the name that we created on the above tutorial which is concretecms_db.

7. For the Privacy Policy, just check the "Yes, I understand and agree to the Privacy Policy." and press the Install Concrete CMS button to proceed.

8. If there is a warning regarding the Database time zone, just check the "Ignore warnings" and press Install Concrete CMS again to proceed.

9. Your Concrete CMS is now installing, wait for it to finish.

10. When installation is completed, you will be presented with "Installation Complete" message. You can press the "Edit your site" button to start editing your site.

Accessing Concrete CMS website home page

1. To access your Concrete CMS website homepage, just type 127.0.0.1/concretecms/index.php/about and press ENTER. You can also change 127.0.0.1 to localhost, they are just the same.

Accessing Concrete CMS website admin account

1. To access your Concrete CMS admin account, just type 127.0.0.1/concretecms/index.php/login and press ENTER.

2. Just enter the username that you created on the above tutorial as well as the password and press the Sign in button to open your admin account.

Done! You have successfully created a website using Concrete CMS all for free. You can start editing it locally, and when done, upload it in a live hosting site online.

I do hope that you have learned a lot while doing all the tutorials for this post. If you have a question, you can leave a comment below. Thank you!