Set up local server using Bitnami Drupal Stack

Bitnami Drupal Stack includes Drupal, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

This is a very easy way to get a Drupal 7 or Drupal 8 site running on your Windows computer. After the installation you will immediately have a Drupal site ready to play with.

A minor benefit using Bitnami compared to Acquia Dev Desktop, is that Bitnami also support other web apps like Wordpress.

Limitation

Additional Drupal site installations in Bitnami, in addition to the original Drupal site that is automatically created during the Bitnami installation, are not as simple to add to Bitnami as you might hope. See the community.bitnami.com page: Can You Host Multiple (and Separate) Drupal Sites Locally?

Download & Install

Go to the page Bitnami Home > Applications > CMS > Drupal > Installers ~ bitnami.com/stack/drupal.

Look under the heading for your computer system (Windows, MAC, or Linux), and click the button "Download" for either Drupal 7, or Drupal 8. After the download has completed, run the installer.

Using

After you click the final installer button "Finish", your browser will automatically open to the "Bitnami: Awesome! Drupal is now installed" page, with browser address:

http://127.0.0.1/

Click "Access Drupal" to go to your new site's 'front' page (The homepage), at browser address:

http://127.0.0.1/drupal/

Drupal 8 Tip: When you now see your Drupal 8 site's homepage (aka 'front' page), click the top-right text link 'login'.

Login: The username and password, for 'login' to your site, are those you used during the installation of Bitnami. (You had to enter a password [twice] during installation. And, if you changed the default username by entering one of your own during the Bitnami installation, then your Drupal site login will use the username you entered. But, if you did not enter your own username, it will be the default that was displayed: "user" [without the double-quotation marks].)

Bitnami shortcuts on Windows

Shortcut links to all of the different Bitnami features can be accessed at your Windows 'Start' button. Those shortcuts are, using Windows 8 for example, at:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Bitnami Drupal Stack

As a notable example, the little window titled 'Bitnami Drupal Stack', which appeared after the Bitnami installation finished, can be reopened with the shortcut "Bitnami Drupal Stack Manager Tool".

Other things of note

• The little window titled 'Bitnami Drupal Stack', which appeared after the Bitnami installation finished, is also known as the 'Bitnami Manager' window and can be reopened by clicking "manager-windows.exe" at:

  [Bitnami installation directory]\manager-windows.exe

• The 'phpMyAdmin' username is "root" (without the double-quotation marks), and the 'phpMyAdmin' password is the password you entered during the Bitnami installation and is the same password as your Drupal site login.

• The 'Readme.txt' file is a good one, and is at:
  [Bitnami installation directory]\README.txt.

• The Drupal codebase is at:

  [Bitnami installation directory]\apps\drupal\htdocs\*

Uninstall

Before you uninstall Bitnami, if you want to save any modifications that you have made to your site:

1. Save the database using the 'phpMyAdmin' tab "Export", and keep in mind that to use your database in the future, you might have to first use it with the precise Drupal version number that you are currently using, before updating your site to a newer Drupal version. So, I recommend that you incorporate the Drupal version number into the filename of your database MySQL 'dump' file, if, and when, you save it.

2. Save a copy of your codebase (from the above stated location) if you have added any modules, themes, or personal files, images, etc.

To uninstall Bitnami, including your Drupal site, Apache, MySQL, and PHP:

• Double-click "uninstall.exe" at:
  [Bitnami installation directory]\uninstall.exe
• Or, use the 'Start' button programs menu item "Uninstall Bitnami Drupal Stack".
• Or, go to the Windows "Control Panel" > "Programs and Features", find 'Bitnami Drupal Stack' in the list, click it once to highlight it, and then above the 'Name' column heading, click "Uninstall/Change".