How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC

This wikiHow teaches you how to install the phpMyAdmin program on your Windows computer. You can use phpMyAdmin to control a MySQL server from within a web browser, but to do so you must first have a MySQL server set up on your computer....
Method 1 of 2:

Using an Existing Apache Server

  1. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 1How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 1
    Make sure that you've installed Apache, PHP, and MySQL. Apache, PHP, and MySQL must all be installed and configured on your computer before you can install phpMyAdmin in this way.
  2. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 2How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 2
    Open the phpMyAdmin download page. Go to https://www.phpmyadmin.net/ in your browser.
  3. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 3How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 3
    Click Download. It's a green button in the upper-right side of the page. The phpMyAdmin ZIP folder will begin downloading onto your computer.
    1. You'll also see the version number next to Download (e.g., for the November 2017 version of phpMyAdmin, you'd click Download 4.7.5).
  4. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 4How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 4
    Click Close when prompted. This will return you to the phpMyAdmin webpage.
  5. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 5How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 5
    Open the phpMyAdmin folder. Double-click the downloaded phpMyAdmin ZIP folder to do so.
  6. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 6How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 6
    Copy the phpMyAdmin folder's contents. Click the regular phpMyAdmin folder in the ZIP folder's window, then press Ctrl+C.
  7. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 7How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 7
    Go to your Apache host folder. This is typically a folder named "htdocs" inside of the "Apache" folder, which should be located in the "C:" folder on your hard drive.
    1. The Apache host folder usually has a text document named "index.php" or something similar.
    2. The fastest way to get to this folder is by clicking This PC on the left side of the window, double-clicking the Apache folder, and double-clicking the htdocs (or similar) folder.
  8. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 8How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 8
    Paste the copied folder into the host folder. Press Ctrl+V to paste the copied phpMyAdmin folder into the Apache host folder.
  9. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 9How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 9
    Change the copied folder's name to phpmyadmin. Click the phpMyAdmin folder, click Home, click Rename in the toolbar, type phpmyadmin into the folder's name field, and press Enter.
  10. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 10How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 10
    Open the PHP folder. This folder is located in the "C:" folder along with the "Apache" folder. Once you find the PHP folder, double-click it to open it.
  11. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 11How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 11
    Find the "php.ini-production" file and rename it. You'll change this file's name to php.ini.[1]
  12. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 12How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 12
    Double-click the "php.ini" file. It will open in your default text editor (e.g., Notepad), though you may first have to select Notepad from a list and click OK.
  13. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 13How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 13
    Find the "extension=php_mbstring.dll" line of text and remove the semicolon. You'll see the semicolon to the left of this line of text.
    1. You can press Ctrl+F to bring up a "Find" window where you can enter this line of text to go to it.
  14. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 14How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 14
    Find the "extension=php_mysqli.dll" line of text and remove the semicolon. Once you've done this, your phpMyAdmin server is good to go.
  15. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 15How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 15
    Save your changes and exit Notepad. Press Ctrl+S to save, then click the X in the top-right corner of the Notepad window to exit Notepad.
  16. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 16How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 16
    Run your Apache server. Open Command Prompt in Administrator mode by right-clicking Start
    How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 17How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 17
    , clicking Command Prompt (Admin), and clicking Yes when prompted, then do the following:
    1. Type in cd /Apache24/bin and press Enter (replace "Apache24" with your Apache folder's name).
    2. Type in httpd -k restart and press Enter.
  17. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 18How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 18
    Test your phpMyAdmin program. Open a web browser, then type http://localhost into the address bar and press Enter. This should take you to the phpMyAdmin login page.
Method 2 of 2:

Using WAMP

  1. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 19How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 19
    Make sure that you have MySQL installed. WAMP allows you to interact with an existing server on your computer, but won't create a server in and of itself.
  2. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 20How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 20
    Check your computer's bit number. You'll need to know this in order to determine the version of WAMP that you can download.
  3. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 21How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 21
    Open the WAMP website. Go to http://www.wampserver.com/en/ in your web browser.
  4. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 22How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 22
    Scroll down and click either WAMPSERVER 64 BITS or WAMPSERVER 32 BITS. The number that you choose here will depend on your computer's bit number. Clicking either option will prompt a pop-up window.
  5. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 23How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 23
    Click the download directly link. It's in the upper-right side of the pop-up window. Doing so takes you to a Source Forge page from which you can download your version of WAMP.
  6. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 24How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 24
    Click Download. This green button is near the top of the page. WAMP will begin downloading onto your computer.
    1. The download will take several minutes to complete.
  7. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 25How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 25
    Install WAMP. Double-click the downloaded WAMP setup file, then do the following:
    1. Click Yes when prompted.
    2. Select a language and click OK
    3. Check "I accept the agreement" and click Next
    4. Click Next three times.
    5. Click Install
  8. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 26How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 26
    Wait for WAMP to finish installing. This will take a few minutes.
  9. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 27How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 27
    Choose a browser when prompted. Click Yes, then go to your preferred browser's EXE file, click it, and click Open.
    1. For example: to select Chrome, you would find and click on the Google folder on the left side of File Explorer, then double-click the Chrome folder and select the Chrome icon.
    2. If you would prefer just to use Internet Explorer, click No instead.
  10. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 28How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 28
    Select a different text editor if needed. If you don't want to use Notepad as your server's text editor, click Yes when prompted, then find the EXE file for the text editor that you want to use, select it, and click Open.
    1. Click No if you want to keep Notepad as the default text editor.
  11. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 29How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 29
    Finish the setup. Click Next, then click Finish on the final WAMP window. WAMP is now installed on your computer.
  12. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 30How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 30
    Open WAMP. Double-click the pink "Wampserver" icon on your desktop, then click Yes when prompted. This will prompt your server to start running.
  13. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 31How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 31
    Click the WAMP icon in the system tray. On the far-right side of the Windows toolbar, you should see an orange or green WAMP icon. Clicking this will prompt a pop-up menu.
    1. You may first have to click the upward-facing arrow in the toolbar to see the WAMP icon.
  14. How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 32How to Install phpMyAdmin on Your Windows PC Picture 32
    Click phpMyAdmin. It should be near the top of the pop-up menu. As long as your server is properly installed, doing so will open the phpMyAdmin login page in your preferred browser.
4.5 ★ | 4 Vote