Installing Moodle In A PC

Moodle usually runs on servers. Why would anyone want to install Moodle in a desktop or laptop PC? Well, it is great for testing features! Trying to figure out how various configurations affect quizzes or how the Lesson module works? Having his own Moodle installation allows anyone to test these and other features to his heart's delight.

I will outline here the steps one needs to take to install Moodle in his Windows PC:

Step 1: Download and install WAMP5

• Get the executable file from http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php (As of this writing, the latest is 1.7.0)
• Run the executable file (wamp5_1.7.0.exe) and follow the instructions
  
• Once running, WAMP5's icon can be seen in the Window's notification area; clicking on it will give you access to various settings
  

Step 2: Install the GD library

• Click on WAMP5's icon in the notification area
• Go to PHP settings > PHP extensions and choose php_gd2
  

Step 3: Create a database for Moodle

• Open a web browser and go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/
• Type moodle in the Create new database field
• Click on the Create button
• Close the browser
  

Step 4: Download and install Moodle

• Get the zip file from http://download.moodle.org (As of this writing, the latest is 1.8)
• Extract the file (moodle-1.8.zip) inside c:\wamp\www
• Open a web browser and go to: http://localhost/moodle
• Follow the instructions
• Note: When in the Configuring the database part, type root in the User field

If installation is successful, you will see this screen:



You can now do personal and frequent testing on Moodle! Just point your browser to http://localhost/moodle whenever you like.