How to install ImpressCMS in XAMPP Windows 11

ImpressCMS is a free multi-language content management system that you can use to create dynamic websites. It was initially released on January 2008 and was developed by The ImpressCMS Project. And for this tutorial, we are going to create a website out of it. But first, you need to download the XAMPP and ImpressCMS installer below. I already provided the link for you.

Requirement:

• XAMPP 5.6.x, download here [via Mediafire]
• Impresscms_1.4.4, download here [via Mediafire]

After downloading all the files, continue doing the listed tutorials below.

Table of Content

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

Here are the steps on how to install ImpressCMS in XAMPP using Windows

XAMPP installation on Windows 11

1. Open the XAMPP file that you downloaded earlier. If a "Warning" appears, just press OK.

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

3. In the Select Components, press NEXT also.

4. In the Installation folder, press NEXT again. Do not change the location.

5. In the Bitnami for XAMPP, just leave it and press NEXT.

6. We are now ready to install XAMPP. Press NEXT to proceed.

7. Wait for the installation to finish.

8. When done, press Finish to exit the installer.

Running XAMPP Control Panel's Apache and MySQL

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

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

3. If you also see a Windows Security Alert, just press Allow access.

Copying ImpressCMS installer to HTDOCS folder

1. Now, go back to the ImpressCMS zip file that you downloaded earlier. Extract it and rename the extracted folder as "impresscms". Make sure the content of your impress is not inside a sub-folder. Now, copy your impresscms folder. Go to This PC.

2. Inside This PC, open your C drive.

3. Inside your C drive, open xampp folder.

4. Then open htdocs folder.

5. Inside htdocs folder, paste your impresscms folder.

Creating ImpressCMS Database on XAMPP phpMyAdmin

1. We are now going to create a database for our installation. Open your web browser. In the address bar, type 127.0.0.1 and press ENTER.

2. Now, click on phpMyAdmin.

3. Inside phpMyAdmin, click Databases.

4. In the Create database, name your database as impresscms_db for this tutorial. Next to it, make sure it is set to utf8mb4_unicode_ci and press Create to proceed.

5. In the Create table, name your table as impresscms_table and leave 4 as the default value of columns. Press Go to proceed.

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

7. In Collation, set it to utf8_unicode_ci and leave all the other fields as blank.

8. Save your database.

ImpressCMS installation via Localhost or 127.0.0.1

1. We are now ready to install our ImpressCMS website. Open your web browser. In the address bar type 127.0.0.1/impresscms/htdocs/install/index.php and press ENTER.

2. In the Choose your language, select English. You can also select your own local language. Press NEXT (arrow) to proceed.

3. In Introduction, just leave it and press NEXT again.

4. In the Configuration check, just see that all of the Requirements and Recommended extensions are checked. Press Next again to proceed.

5. In the Paths settings, under Trust path, you will see a "Trust path was not found" error. Just "Create Trust Path" to proceed.

6. Still under Trust path, after clicking the "Create trust path", you will then see a "Trust path found" message. Click Next to proceed.

7. Under Database connection, do the following: Database - MySQL, Server hostname - localhost, Username - root, Password - none or blank. Press NEXT to proceed.

8. In the Database configuration do the following: Database name - impresscms_db, remove the Password Salt Key and press NEXT to proceed.

9. In the Configuration save, your system configuration will be saved. Press NEXT to proceed.

10. In the Tables creation, you will see "No ImpressCMS tables were detected. The installer is now ready to create the ImpressCMS system tables." Press NEXT to proceed.

11. Still under Tables creation, you will see that all the needed tables are now created. Just press NEXT again to proceed.

12. In the Initial settings do the following: Admin Display Name - admin. Admin Login - admin. Admin email - enter a valid one. Admin password - enter your password and confirm it. Do not forget your password. Press NEXT to proceed.

13. In the Data insertion, your settings will then be saved to the database. Just press NEXT to proceed.

14. All the settings you that we have made are successfully inserted into the database. Just press NEXT to proceed.

15. In the Installation of modules, under "Select modules to be installed" just uncheck or unselect the Content. Press NEXT to proceed.

16. Still under Install modules, just press NEXT again to proceed.

17. And you have successfully installed your ImpressCMS website.

Accessing ImpressCMS website home page

1. To open your website homepage, just go to 127.0.0.1/impresscms/htdocs.

Accessing ImpressCMS website ADMIN account

1. To open your Admin account to manage your website and modify some settings, just go to the login section.

2. Enter your username and password and press User Login button to proceed.

3. Inside your administration account, you will see the settings for User Menu, Main Menu, and Themes. This page is only available to you as the owner and admin of your ImpressCMS website.

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