How to install MediaWiki in XAMPP Windows 11

MediaWiki a free wiki-software that you can use to make a website that looks like Wikipedia. Well, Wikipedia was made out of it including other websites like Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. And for this post, we will be making our own MediaWiki website for free via XAMPP's localhost in our Windows 11 pc. You can also use other versions of Windows if you do not have Windows 11.

But before anything else, you need to download first the two files below. The download links are also provided for your convenience.

Requirements:

• XAMPP 8.0.x, download here [via Mediafire]
• Mediawiki-1.38.4, download here [via Mediafire]

Assuming that you already downloaded the files, continue doing the tutorials below.

Table of Contents

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

Here are the steps on how to install MediaWiki website via XAMPP using your Windows pc

XAMPP installation on Windows 11

1. Open the XAMPP file that you downloaded earlier. If a Question appears regarding antivirus running, just click YES to proceed.

2. If a Warning also appears about the User Account Control (UAC), just click OK to proceed.

3. In the Setup - XAMPP, click NEXT.

4. In the Select Components, just leave it as it is and press NEXT again.

5. Under Installation folder, do not alter the default location which is C:\xampp. Just press NEXT again to proceed.

6. In Language, select English. You can also select your own local language if you want. Press NEXT to continue.

7. You are now ready to install XAMPP. Press NEXT to start the installation.

8. Wait for the unpacking and installation to finish.

9. When done, uncheck the "Do you want to start the Control Panel now?" and click Finish to exit the installer.

Running XAMPP Control Panel's Apache and MySQL

1. To run XAMPP, you can click its shortcut located on your desktop or you can go to Start and search for "xampp" and press ENTER.

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

3. If you see both Stop buttons now for Apache and MySQL, they are now running.

4. If a Windows Security Alert appears, just click Allow access to exit.

Copying MediaWiki installer to HTDOCS folder

1. Back to the MediaWiki zip file that you downloaded earlier. Extract it and rename the extracted folder as "mediawiki" for this tutorial. Make sure the extracted files are not in a sub-folder. Copy your mediawiki folder. Now, go to Start and search for "this pc" and press ENTER.

2. Inside This PC, click on C drive.

3. Now, find and press xampp folder.

4. Inside xampp, click htdocs folder.

5. And inside htdocs folder, paste your mediawiki folder.

Creating MediaWiki Database on XAMPP phpMyAdmin

1. MediaWiki installation needs a database. To make one, open your internet browser. In the address bar, type in 127.0.0.1 and press ENTER.

2. Inside, click on phpMyAdmin.

3. Inside phpMyAdmin, click on Databases.

4. In the Create database, name your database as mediawiki_db for this tutorial. Leave utf8mb4_general_ci as it is and press Create to proceed.

5. In the Create new table, name your table as mediawiki_table and leave 4 as the number of columns. Press Create to proceed.

6. In Structure, name it as mediawiki and leave INT for the Type.

7. And for Collation, select utf8_unicode_ci and leave all other fields as blank.

8. Save your database.

MediaWiki installation via Localhost or 127.0.0.1

1. We are now ready to install our MediaWiki website. Open your internet browser and type in 127.0.0.1/mediawiki and press ENTER.

2. If a MediaWiki error appears regarding required components PHP extensions - intl, then do this tutorial first.

3. Assuming that the PHP extension intl is now gone, and the LocalSettings.php not found appears, just ignore it and press the "set up the wiki" first link.

4. Under MediaWiki installation Language, select English for both Your Language and Wiki Language.

5. In the Welcome to MediaWiki installation page, just press Continue to proceed.

6. Under Connect to database, do the following: Database type - MariaDB, MySQL, or compatible (pre-selected), Database host - localhost, Database name - mediawiki_db, leave table prefix blank, Database username - root and leave the password as blank also. Press Continue to proceed.

7. Under Database settings, just leave it and press Continue again.

8. In the next page, just Name your Wiki. For Administrator account, input your username as admin, and your password (remember it). Enter a valid email also. And select "I'm bored already, just install wiki already." Press Continue to proceed.

9. You are now ready to install your MediaWiki website. Press Continue to confirm.

10. Wait for the installation to finish. When done, click on Continue again.

11. And you have installed our MediaWiki website.

12. If your internet browser did not automatically download the LocalSettings.php file, then, click the download link to download it.

13. When done downloading, copy the LocalSettings.php file. Go to This PC > C drive > xampp > htdocs > mediawiki > and paste LocalSettings.php file inside it.

Accessing MediaWiki website home page

1. To access your MediaWiki website homepage, just go to 127.0.0.1/mediawiki or localhost/mediawiki.

Accessing MediaWiki website ADMIN account

1. To access your MediaWiki admin account, click on Login located near the upper-right corner of your website.

2. Login the username and password that you created on the tutorial above (during installation). Press Login to proceed.

3. You are now inside administration page of your MediaWiki website. The sample screenshot below is the page for Preferences.

You have successfully created a free MediaWiki website using XAMPP in your Windows pc. This is just the basic installation and if you want to propagate your WikiMedia website with pages and modify the pages, you can search for it on Google to know more.

Thank you for reading this tutorial guys. I do hope that you've learned a lot while doing this. If you have question, just leave a comment below. Cheers!