If you chose xampp for your server environment then you have an easy way to create and modify databases. Simply access your localhost from your browser (http://127.0.0.1) and you will be at the xampp front page once you log in. From there you can select phpMyAdmin and create a database. Since you only have to use this database by name immediately after you create it and then again whenever you move to a different server it can be any name but for simplicities sake I like to make it either the same name as the project or something very similar. Creating a database in phpMyAdmin is very easy, on the front page there is a blank form you fill in, select your type of database and then create it.

Now you are ready to install Joomla! Download the latest version (at the time of writing it is 1.12 and THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR COMPATABILITY ISSUES WITH COMPONENTS, ENSURE YOU DOWNLOAD 1.12). For this reason you will probably want to download from Joomla! website as they generally will have the most up to date version. It is important you install in the httdocs folder under where you installed Xampp too (generally something like C:/program files/xampp/httdocs/MyJoomlaWebsite) for simplicity and compatabilities sake in publishing. So, extract your files to that folder from the Joomla! zip. You're done right?

Not quite! Now what you have to do is 'run' the website. Since it is publishing to your localhost you go in your address bar of internet explorerer to http://127.0.0.1/MyJoomlaSite (this is why it's so important to put your project in the httdocs folder otherwise this doesn't work then what you are going to do?) and this will load the Joomla! installation page. Here it will ask you a number of different questions... you should almost always leave the defaults for everything and fill in the blanks as you go. If you are confident something is incorrect, then change it, but don't be surprised if everything stops working! The database is the database we created earlier in phpMyAdmin and the password is the one you used to log in to phpmyadmin (you set this up the very first time you ever ran xampp).

What exactly are the fields we are talking about here? Host name in our case will be 'localhost', meaning the same thing as 127.0.0.1 and also meaning that only you will be able to see these websites (or someone looking over your shoulder). The MySQL user name and password are as we talked about above the login information for MySQL the database program and fairly straightforward. Likewise the database name is exactly as it sounds and you can just leave the table prefix alone. You will almost always want to install the sample data! It is easy to edit out and gives you a very good idea of how Joomla! works and can be edited if you don't know how. When you attempt to move on it will ask you to rubber stamp your decision, so give another check to the settings (it's a pavlovian reaction, you are told to double check something you always do it, don't fight it you can't) and then continue on. If you get an error message, find out where you made your typo and fix it.

Site name is as obviously straightforward as you can imagine. Finally, in step three you will enter in your e-mail address and admin password, again I would advise against altering the URL and PATH data at least until you are ready to move your site to a real big boys server! Finally you're done right? It even says you're done! Well, there is one last thing you have to do and that is removing the installation directory. This is extremely easy to do, just go to that httdocs directory, find your folder, find the sub folder installation and delete it. You are finally done. After all that blood, sweat, toil and tears you have managed to install Joomla! on your computer. I recommend that you add both the admin login and user login to your favorites because you will be using them quite frequently and it can save you a lot of time and the effort of typing in the lengthy and difficult addresses each time.

Of course, the battle may be won but the war is just beginning. I mean... you still have to make a website right! Now's a great time to start messing around with the Content and the menus... if you mess up too badly just delete your folder and reinstall and remember to bookmark this page so you can come back to it when that inevitably happens!