How to Install PrestaShop on Windows

Installing PrestaShop Windows setup is a straightforward process that allows you to manage your e-commerce store directly from your desktop. PrestaShop, a popular open-source platform, offers robust features to help you create and run an online store with ease. Whether you’re setting up a new business or migrating from another platform, knowing how to install PrestaShop on your Windows system can give you greater control and flexibility.

This guide will walk you through each step of the installation process, from downloading the necessary software to configuring your store settings. By the end, you’ll be ready to start customizing your online store, making it accessible to customers around the world.

Prerequisites to Install PrestaShop on Windows

Before installing PrestaShop on your Windows system, you’ll need to ensure that your environment meets the necessary requirements. In this section, we’ll outline the essential prerequisites to get started.

XAMPP: A Local Web Server Environment

To run the PrestaShop Windows server on your system, you’ll need a local web server environment. XAMPP is a popular, free, and open-source solution that provides a comprehensive suite of tools to create a local web server. XAMPP stands for:

• X: Cross-platform compatibility (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• A: Apache (web server software)
• M: MySQL (database management system)
• P: PHP (programming language)
• P: Perl (programming language)

XAMPP provides a user-friendly interface to manage your local web server, making it easy to install, configure, and run web applications like PrestaShop.

System Requirements to Install PrestaShop on Windows 10

In addition to XAMPP, your Windows system should meet the following requirements:

1. Operating System: Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
2. Processor: 2 GHz or faster CPU
3. RAM: 4 GB or more
4. Disk Space: 1 GB or more (depending on the size of your PrestaShop store)
5. PHP Version: 7.2 or later (XAMPP includes the latest PHP version)
6. MySQL Version: 5.6 or later (XAMPP includes the latest MySQL version)

After installing XAMPP on Windows, we can enable Apache, PHP, and MySQL directly from this application.

Additional Requirements

To ensure a smooth installation process, you’ll also need:

1. Web Browser: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge
2. Text Editor: Notepad++, Sublime Text, or Atom (for editing configuration files)
3. FTP Client: FileZilla (optional, for transferring files to your server)

By meeting these prerequisites, you’ll be well-prepared to install PrestaShop on your Windows system using XAMPP. In the next section, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step installation process.

Installing PrestaShop on Windows

Now that you’ve met the prerequisites, you’re ready to download and install PrestaShop on your Windows system.

Step 1: Downloading PrestaShop

First, you need to download the Zip file of PrestaShop from its official website:

Step 2: Extracting PrestaShop Files

After downloading the PrestaShop zip file, you need to extract its contents to the htdocs directory of your XAMPP installation. But what is htdocs, and why is it necessary to extract the files here?

The htdocs is a directory in your XAMPP installation where you store your website files. It’s a shortened form of “hypertext documents” and is the default directory for serving web content. When you access http://localhost in your web browser, XAMPP looks for files in the htdocs directory to display.

Extracting the PrestaShop files to the htdocs directory allows XAMPP to serve the files as a website. This is necessary because PrestaShop is a web application that requires a web server to function. By placing the files in htdocs, you’re telling XAMPP to serve the PrestaShop application when you access http://localhost/prestashop in your web browser.

To extract the PrestaShop files to htdocs, follow these steps:

• Navigate to the location where you saved the prestashop_edition_basic_version_8.1.7.zip file.
• Right-click on the file and select “Extract All” or “Extract to” (depending on your operating system).
• In the extraction dialog, select the htdocs directory of your XAMPP installation (usually C:\xampp\htdocs or C:\xampp\htdocs\prestashop).

• Click “Extract” to extract the PrestaShop files to the htdocs directory.

Wait for the extraction process to complete. Once finished, you’ll see a Prestashop directory inside htdocs containing all the necessary files for your PrestaShop Windows installation.

Step 3: Creating a Database for PrestaShop

Creating a database is a crucial step in the PrestaShop installation process. A database is necessary to store all the data related to your online store, including products, customers, orders, and settings. PrestaShop uses a database to manage and retrieve this data, making it essential to create a database before proceeding with the installation.

To create a database for PrestaShop, you can use the phpMyAdmin tool, which is included in the XAMPP package. Here’s how to create a database using phpMyAdmin:

• Open a web browser and navigate to the phpMyAdmin URL: http://localhost/phpmyadmin
• Log in to phpMyAdmin using the default username and password (usually root and an empty password)
• Click on the “Databases” tab
• Click on the “Create” button
• Enter a name for your database (e.g., PrestaShop)
• Select the character set and collation (usually utf8mb4 and utf8mb4_unicode_ci)
• Click on the “Create” button to create the database

Step 4: Installing PrestaShop

Now that you have created a database, you can proceed with installing PrestaShop. To do this, follow these steps:
Open a web browser and navigate to the URL: http://localhost/yourstorename. Replace yourstorename with the name of the directory where you extracted the PrestaShop files (e.g., prestashop)

Next, you will see the PrestaShop installation wizard, which will guide you through the installation process. After that follow the wizard’s instructions to complete the installation process, which includes:

• Selecting the language and country
• Entering the database details (database name, username, and password)
• Creating a new administrator account
• Configuring the store settings

Once you have completed the installation process, you will be redirected to the PrestaShop dashboard, where you can start configuring your online store.

Conclusion

In this guide, we walked you through the step-by-step process of installing PrestaShop on your Windows system using XAMPP. We covered the prerequisites, including downloading and installing XAMPP, and ensuring that your system meets the necessary requirements. We also explained the importance of creating a database for PrestaShop using phpMyAdmin and extracting the PrestaShop files to the htdocs directory.

By following these steps, you have successfully installed PrestaShop on your Windows system. The PrestaShop installation wizard guided you through the installation process, from selecting the language and country to configuring the store settings. With PrestaShop now installed, you can start customizing your online store, managing products, customers, and orders, and taking your e-commerce business to the next level.

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