An essential for any aspiring theme developer is a local install of WordPress. There are plenty of benefits to doing so and there are also pitfalls if you don’t.
I will tell you about the pitfalls in a second, but before that, I want to tell you 5 great reasons why you should use a local install as your sandbox as opposed to installing a live version on some subdomain of yours:
- Works exactly like the real deal; plugins and all
- No need to mess with FTP programs
- Develop anywhere (no connection needed)
- Make sure your theme is compatible with latest version of WordPress
- Code in secret, then release with a bang
Anyways, here is how to Install WordPress Locally on a Windows Box
1. Download and Extract XAMPP Lite
- Go to  http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-Windows.html#646
- Download XAMPP Lite.exe (the .exe is a smaller, faster download)
- Move the download to the root of your C drive  C:\
- Run the .exe and the directory will be installed
2. Startup Apache and MySQL
- Open the xampplite folder
- Double click  setup_xampp.bat
- After the program tells you to have fun, press any key on your keyboard
- Now double click on  xampp-control.exe
- Now start the  Apache and  MySQL services
- If everything worked, you will see  Running next to those 2 services
3. Create a New Database
- In your browser of choice, navigate to  http://localhost/xampp/splash.php
- Click on your language
- On the left hand side, under  Tools, click  phpMyAdmin
- On that page, you will see the MySQL heading, like in the screenshot below
- Call the database  WordPress and select  utf8 unicode ci from the drop down menu
- Click  Create
4. Install WordPress
- Download and extract  WordPress to your desktop
- In the extracted folder, open the file  wp-config-sample.php in a text editor
- Edit the file to look like this:
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'root'); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', ''); // ...and password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // 99% chance you won't need to change this value - Save the file as  wp-config.php
- Now open up the  Xammplite folder on your C drive and then open the  htdocsfolder
- Copy the whole  WordPress folder here
- Finally, use your browser and navigate to  http://localhost/WordPress/wp-admin/Install.php
And you are done, with the installation of WordPress Locally on a Windows Machine
Click here to Get details of how to go about on a Mac/ Linux
Dhawal D