How to install Drupal in XAMPP Windows 11

Drupal is one of the most popular CMS (Content Management System) that you can easily download, install for free. It was first released on January 15, 2001 by Dries Buytaert.

For this tutorial, we will be making a website out of this amazing CMS. But first, you need to download the two given files below.

Requirements:

• XAMPP 8.0.x, download here [via Mediafire]
• Drupal-9.4.7, download here [via Mediafire]

Table of Contents

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

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

XAMPP installation on Windows 11

1. After downloading XAMPP. Install it. In the Question continue with the installation, just press YES to proceed.

2. In the Warning because of an activated User Account Control (UAC) on your system, click OK.

2. Under Setup - XAMPP, press NEXT.

3. Click NEXT again in the Select Components.

4. In the Installation folder, click NEXT again.

5. Under Language, select English and click NEXT.

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

7. Wait for the installation to finish.

8. When done, 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. To run XAMPP, you can click its shortcut found on your desktop or go to search and type xampp, then press ENTER.

2. When the XAMPP Control Panel starts, click the Start buttons for both Apache and MySQL.

2. You will now see two Stop buttons for both Apache and MySQL, meaning, they are both running. You can click the X button to minimize it to system tray.

3. If a Windows Security Alert appears, just click Allow access.

Copying Drupal installer to HTDOCS folder

1. Now, we need to copy and paste our Drupal installation folder inside xampp's htdocs folder. But first, we need to extract the zip file first and after extracting name your folder as drupal. When done, go to Start and type "this pc" then press ENTER.

2. Inside This PC, click your C drive.

3. Inside C drive, click on xampp folder.

4. Inside xampp, click on htdocs folder.

5. Paste your drupal folder inside htdocs folder.

Creating Drupal Database on XAMPP phpMyAdmin

1. We need to create a database first before we can start the Drupal installation. Open your internet browser. For this tutorial, I am using Google Chrome. In the address bar, type 127.0.0.1 and press ENTER. You can also type localhost.

2. Inside, click phpMyAdmin.

3. Inside phpMyAdmin, click Databases.

4. In the Create database, for this tutorial, name your database as drupal_db. Next to it, leave utf8mb4_general_ci as it is and press Create button.

5. In the Create new table, name your table as drupal_table and leave 4 in the Number of columns. Press Create again.

6. In Structure, name it as drupal. Type is already set to INT, leave it also.

7. For Collation, select utf8_unicode_ci and leave all other fields blank.

8. Save your work.

Drupal installation via Localhost or 127.0.0.1

1. To start Drupal installation, open your internet browser again. In the address bar, type 127.0.0.1/drupal and press ENTER. For this to work, make sure you named your extracted drupal zip file as drupal (as shown on the step above).

2. In the Choose language, select English. You can also select your local language. Press Save and continue to proceed.

3. In Choose profile, select Standard for "Select an installation profile."

4. If the Requirements problem appears, like errors and warnings then do the following steps below first.

For PHP EXTENSION: GD error

1. Go to c:\xampp\php and find php.ini
2. Right-click open with Notepad
3. Find "gd"
4. From ;extension=gd change it to extension=gd
5. Save
6. Restart XAMPP
7. Restart Drupal Installation

For Warnings Found: PHP OPCODE CACHING

1. Go to c:\xampp\php and find php.ini
2. Right-click open with Notepad
3. Find "PHP OPCODE CACHING"
4. You will see these lines: ;zend_extension=opcache
5. Change the lines to this: zend_extension=opcache
6. Save
7. Restart XAMPP
8. Restart Drupal Installation

5. Assuming that you already solved the errors and warnings by doing the given steps above, you are now inside Set up database. Under Database configuration, select "MySQL, MariaDB, Percona Server, or equivalent" for Database type. For Database name enter drupal_db, for username enter type root. Leave password blank. Press Save and continue button to proceed.

6. In the Install site, wait for it to finish.

7. When done, you are now ready to configure your site. Name your site, enter a valid email address (you can use this later to recover your password). For username, you can type admin. Type your password and do not forget it.

8. For another email address, just re-type your email address again and leave the remaining settings to default. Press Save and continue button to proceed.

Accessing Drupal website home page

1. To access your Drupal website homepage, go to 127.0.0.1/drupal or localhost/drupal.

Accessing Drupal website ADMIN account

1. To access your Drupal website login page for you to login as admin, go to 127.0.0.1/drupal/user/login. Type the username and password that you created earlier and press Log in to open your admin page.

Done! You have successfully created a Drupal website using XAMPP in your Windows 11 pc. You can start making updates for it to look more professional and neat. And later, you can try uploading it on an online web hosting to make it accessible to the world.

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