How to install B2evolution in XAMPP Windows 11

B2evolution is a content and community management system. Using it, you can easily create a website, blog, forum, photo albums and more. It was developed by François Planque and was initially released in 2003. And for this tutorial, we are going to make a website, blog, forum and a photo album website out of it. But first, you need to download XAMPP and the b2evolution installer. I have provided the links below.

Requirements:

• XAMPP 5.6.x, download here [via Mediafire]
• b2evolution-7.2.5-stable-2022-08-06, download here [via Mediafire]

Assuming that you already download the given files above, continue doing the tutorials below.

Table of Contents

• XAMPP installation on Windows 11
• Running XAMPP Control Panel's Apache and MySQL
• Copying b2evolution installer to HTDOCS folder
• Creating b2evolution Database on XAMPP phpMyAdmin
• b2evolution installation via Localhost or 127.0.0.1
• Accessing b2evolution website home page
• Accessing b2evolution website ADMIN account

Here are the steps on how to install b2evolution in XAMPP using your Windows 11 pc

XAMPP installation on Windows 11

1. Back to the XAMPP file that you downloaded earlier. Double-click to open. If a Warning about User Account Control (UAC) appears, just click OK to proceed.

2. In the Setup - XAMPP, just click NEXT.

3. In the Select Components, click NEXT also.

4. In the Installation folder, do not change it and click NEXT again.

5.In the Bitnami for XAMPP, just click NEXT again.

6. You are now ready to install XAMPP, click NEXT to confirm.

7. Wait for the installation (unpacking files) to finish.

8. When done, just click the Finish button to exit XAMPP installer.

Running XAMPP Control Panel's Apache and MySQL

1. Open run XAMPP Control Panel, you can click its shortcut located in your desktop. You can also go to Start and search for "xampp" and press ENTER. Inside XAMPP, click the Start buttons for both Apache and MySQL.

2. Apache and MySQL are both running now if you see two Stop buttons.

3. If a Windows Security Alert appears, just click the Allow access to exit the alert.

Copying b2evolution installer to HTDOCS folder

1. Back to the b2evolution zip file that you download earlier. Extract it and rename your extracted folder as "b2evolution". Make sure the all the contents of your b2evolution folder is it inside a sub-folder. Now, copy your b2evolution folder. Go to Start and search for "this pc" and press ENTER.

2. Inside This PC, click your  C drive.

3. Inside, find and click the xampp folder.

4. And inside XAMPP, click on htdocs folder.

5. Paste your b2evolution folder inside htdocs.

Creating b2evolution Database on XAMPP phpMyAdmin

1. We are now going to create the needed database for our b2evolution website. Open your internet browser. In the address bar type 127.0.0.1 and press ENTER. Inside, click on phpMyAdmin. And inside phpMyAdmin, click Databases.

2. In the Create database, name your database as b2evolution for this tutorial. Next to it, change the value to utf8mb4_unicode_ci and press Create button.

3. In the Create table, name your table as b2evolution_table and set the number of columns to 4. Press Go to proceed.

4. For the Structure, name it as b2evolution and INT should be the default Type.

5. For Collation, find and select utf8_unicode_ci and leave all the other fields blank.

6. Save your work.

b2evolution installation via Localhost or 127.0.0.1

1. We are now ready to install our b2evolution website. Open your internet browser again. In the address bar type 127.0.0.1/b2evolution and press ENTER.

2. In the "Base configuration is not done!" Just click on the "here" link (see image below) to proceed.

3. In the Base Configuration, do the following: MySQL Host/Server - localhost, MySQL database - b2evolution_db, MySQL Username - root, MySQL Password - blank or none. In the Additional settings, just type a valid email address. When done, press Update config file button to proceed.

4. In the "How would you like your b2evolution installed?" click "New Install". Click Next to continue.

5. In the "b2evolution installation options" check the "Create a demo website" and below it select "Complex Site, including multiple collections: Global home page, Sample Blog A (Public), Sample Blog B (Private), Photo Albums, Forums, Online Manual, and Tracker." If you want to install just one of these options, you can just select the Standard Site (1 collection): and in the dropdown menu select the kind of website that you wanted to install. When done, click the INSTALL button to proceed.

6. Wait for the installation process to be finished.

7. When done, you will be presented by your admin account username and password. Copy these credentials.

Accessing b2evolution website home page

1. To open your b2evolution website homepage just go to 127.0.0.1/b2evolution.

2. If you selected to install Blog A, it will look like the sample image below.

3. And if you selected Photos it will look like the sample image below.

4. A b2evolution Forum is the sample image below.

Accessing b2evolution website ADMIN account

1. Now, to access your b2evolution website user admin account login page, just go to 127.0.0.1/b2evolution/evoadm.php. Enter your username and password and press Login to proceed.

2. You will then see your b2evolution administration page. It contains all the settings and controls in your website that is only available to you as the admin and owner of the site.

Done! You have successfully created different kinds of website out of b2evolution CMS. If you have question, just leave a comment below. Thank you!