How to install PrestaShop in XAMPP Windows 11

PrestaShop is a free and very professional-looking open source e-commerce platform. Out of it, you can produce e-commerce websites. It was founded by Bruno Lévêque and Igor Schlumberger in 2007. And it was initially released on July 31, 2008. For this tutorial, we are going to create a beautiful e-commerce website from this amazing CMS. But first, you need to downloaded the needed files before your can start. These files are the XAMPP and PrestaShop installers. I already provided the download links below.

Requirements:

• xampp-win32-7.3.0-0-VC15-installer [download here]
• prestashop_1.7.8.7 [download here]

Assuming that you downloaded the files above, continue to the tutorials below.

Table of Contents

• XAMPP Installation
• Opening XAMPP and running Apache and MySQL
• Copying and pasting PrestaShop installation folder inside htdocs
• Creating Database needed for PrestaShop installation via Localhost
• Installing PrestaShop website using localhost via web browser
• Opening PrestaShop website homepage
• Accessing PrestaShop website admin page

Here are the steps on how to install PrestaShop website using XAMPP in Windows pc

XAMPP Installation

1. Open the XAMPP file that you downloaded. If a Question regarding antivirus running appears, just ignore it and press YES to proceed.

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

3. Under Setup - XAMPP, click NEXT to proceed.

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

5. Under Installation folder, do not change the default location which is C:\xampp. Just leave it and press NEXT to proceed.

6. In the Bitnami for XAMPP, just uncheck "Learn more about..." and press NEXT to proceed.

7. We are now ready to install XAMPP, click NEXT to start.

8. Wait for the installation to finish.

9. When done, click Finish to exit the installer.

Opening XAMPP and running Apache and MySQL

1. To run XAMPP, go to This PC > C drive > xampp and click the xampp-control.exe.

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

3. Apache and MySQL are both running now when you see two Stop buttons. If there is a Windows Security Alert, just press Allow access.

Copying and pasting PrestaShop installation folder inside htdocs

1. Extract the PrestaShop zip file that you downloaded and rename the extracted folder as "prestashop". Copy presta folder and go to This PC.

2. Inside This PC, open your C drive.

3. Inside C, open xampp folder.

4. Inside xampp, open htdocs folder.

5. Paste your prestashop folder inside htdocs.

Creating Database needed for PrestaShop installation via Localhost

1. Open your web browser and go to 127.0.0.1 and press ENTER.

2. Inside, click on phpMyAdmin.

3. Inside phpMyAdmin, click Databases.

4. Under Databases, in the Create database, name it as prestashop_db and next to it, set it to utf8mb4_unicode_ci. Press Create to proceed.

5. In the Create table, name it as prestashop_table. Set 4 as the number of columns. Press Go to proceed.

6. Next, for structure, name it as prestashop and set INT as the Type.

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

8. Save your work.

Installing PrestaShop website using localhost via web browser

1. We are now ready to install our PrestaShop e-commerce website. To start, open your web browser and go to 127.0.0.1/prestashop/install and press ENTER.

2. In the Welcome to the PrestaShop 1.7.8.7 Installer, select English as the installation language and press NEXT to proceed.

3. In the License Agreements, just check the "I agree..." and press NEXT to proceed.

4. Under System Compatibility, if you encountered the same errors as below (see image), then, we need to fix it first before we continue with our installation. Proceed to STEP 5.

5. To fix the Required PHP parameters - "Intl extension is not loaded" as well as the "Install and enable the intl extension (used for validators)", just follow the tutorial below.

How to fix INTL error during PrestaShop installation

• Go to c:\xampp\php and find php.ini
• Right-click open with Notepad
• Find ";extension=intl"
• From ;extension=intl change it to extension=intl
• Save Notepad
• Restart XAMPP
• Click "Refresh Information"

6. To fix realpath_cache_size warning, then, do the tutorial below.

How to fix realpath_cache_size warning during PrestaShop installation

• Go to c:\xampp\php and find php.ini
• Right-click open with Notepad
• Find ";realpath_cache_size = 4096k"
• From ;realpath_cache_size = 4096k change it to realpath_cache_size = 5M
• Save Notepad
• Restart XAMPP

7. For the last time, click Refresh information button again.

8. You will now see the same image as below, saying "PrestaShop compatibility with your system environment has been verified!" Just ignore the "upgrade the ICU system package" and "install/enable PHP accelerator" warnings that you will see. Press NEXT to proceed.

9. Under Information about your Store, do the following: Shop name - name your shop. Main activity - I selected Download for this tutorial. Install demo data - Yes. Country - select your country. Enable SSL - I selected No since this is just a localhost installation.

10. Under Your Account, do the following: First Name - Admin. Last Name - User. Email address - input a valid email. Shop password/Re-type to confirm - input desired password and do not forget it. When done press NEXT to proceed.

11. In the "Configure your database by filling out the following fields", do the following: Database server address - 127.0.0.1 Database name - prestashop_db. Database login - root. Database password - blank or none. Table prefix - ps_ and check Drop existing tables. Press NEXT to proceed.

12. Wait for the installation to finish.

13. If ever there is an error during the installation, just press "clicking here" to restart the installation proceed.

14. Again, just wait for the installation to finish. It might take some time.

15. Done! Your PrestaShop e-commerce website installation is finished!

16. Please remember your login information. These include your Email and Password.

17. For security purposes, you also need to delete the install folder inside your prestashop folder. Continue to STEP 18.

18. To delete the install folder, just go to This PC > C drive > xampp > htdocs > prestashop > find and delete the install folder.

19. To access your Back Office or admin account, you can click the Manage your store button (see image below).

20. For my PrestaShop website, my admin account link is 127.0.0.1/prestashop/admin4250bt71v/index.php?controller=AdminLogin. Your link is different so do not use the one that I have here.

Opening PrestaShop website homepage

1. To open PrestaShop ecommerce website homepage, just go to 127.0.0.1/prestashop or localhost/prestashop.

Accessing PrestaShop website admin page

1. To access your PrestaShop admin login page, just type 127.0.0.1/prestashop/adminXXXXXXXXX/index.php?controller=AdminLogin. You need to change the XXXXXXXXX to your own. Just go to This PC > C drive > xampp > htdocs > prestashop > then find the admin folder inside your prestashop directory. See image below.

2. In the admin login page, enter your Email address and your password. Press Log In to proceed.

3. And you just accessed your PrestaShop ecommerce website administration page.

Thank you for reading this post guys! I do hope that it helped you a lot. If you have a question to ask, do not hesitate to leave a comment below. Cheers!