How to Install Drupal on XAMPP running localhost

Installing Drupal on XAMPP locally on your computer
Drupal is an open source content management platform. You can use Drupal to build big and powerful websites and web applications such as online Newspapers, E-commerce stores, Company Portals, Corporate Intranet, Multi-user Blogs, Social Networks, and much more. Drupal is huge and it's reach is enormous. If you can imagine a content driven website, you can make it with Drupal.
Drupal is not like other Content Management Systems, for example WordPress, which is mostly used by people as a blogging platform. Drupal is not just a simple content management framework built for doing one thing. It is extremely flexible and extendable, allowing us to build websites for specific needs.
Drupal has a vibrant community of developers, themers, and contributors. Drupal is evolving every day and because of this remarkable community, thousands of modules (Modules extend the functionalities of Drupal), themes, and distributions have been contributed to Drupal.
If you want to learn Drupal, which is a great thing to do, you will first need to install it. In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to install Drupal 7 on XAMPP in simple steps with screenshots.
You must have XAMPP installed on your computer in order to follow through the steps outlined in this tutorial. If you don't have XAMPP installed, visit here for a tutorial on installing XAMPP on Windows.

Let's look at how to install Drupal 7 on XAMPP

Although we are using Drupal 7.23 for this tutorial, it will work for any minor Drupal 7.xx version.
Drupal 7 requires MySQL 5.0.15 or higher with PDO or PostgreSQL 8.3 or higher with PDO or SQLite 3.3.7 or higher which are included in the latest version of XAMPP, so you don't need to install them individually.

1) Download Drupal

Go to https://drupal.org/project/drupal, and download the latest recommended release of Drupal.

2) Extract the contents

After downloading Drupal, extract the contents of the downloaded file on your computer. Depending on the version you have downloaded, the extracted contents should be in a folder named as “drupal-x.y”.
Change the name of the folder. In this tutorial, we are naming the folder as “drupal”. This folder will be needed later in this tutorial.

3) Create a Database

Now, we need to create a database for Drupal. Drupal requires a database to store some configuration settings and user's content. Go here to see how to create a database using phpMyAdmin.  We created a database with “drupal_db” as its name.

4) Keep Drupal in the "htdocs" folder of XAMPP

The "drupal" folder should be kept inside the XAMPP's "htdocs" folder. To do this, copy the “drupal” folder which was mentioned in step 2, and paste it inside the “htdocs” folder. Generally, the “htdocs” folder is found at “C:\xampp\htdocs”.
The folder path should look like “C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal”.
You can see the contents of the "drupal" folder.

5) Start a web browser and go to "localhost/drupal"

Make sure that Apache and MySQL are running in XAMPP.  Write “localhost/drupal” in the address bar of the browser, and press the Enter key. The browser will be redirected to “localhost/drupal/install.php”.
You will see the page as shown below.
Here, you can choose one from the two options - Standard installation profile or Minimal installation profile. We recommend that you choose the Standard profile. It installs drupal with commonly used features which are pre-configured.
Click on “ Save and continue” button.

6) Choose language

Now, in the page as shown below, you can see the default language is English. In this tutorial, we are using the default language English.
Click on “Save and continue”.

7) Enter Database Configuration details

You will see the “Database configuration” page as shown below. Enter the database configuration details created in step 7.

• For the field "Database type", choose "MySQL, MariaDB, or equivalent".
• In the field "Database name", write the name of the database which you have created in step 3.
• In the field "Database username", write the user name associated with the database which you have created in step 7. You can use the MySQL SuperUser "root".
• In the field "Database password", write the password associated with the "Database username". If you are using "root" as the "Database username" and the associated password was not changed, keep the “Password” field blank. (You can find the XAMPP MySQL security settings here http://localhost/security/xamppsecurity.php. You can change the language at http://localhost/security/index.php)
• In the "ADVANCED OPTIONS" section, there is no need to change anything.

Click on "Save and continue". This will start installing Drupal.

If the "Database configuration" page as shown above is not displayed, and you see any error related to the "settings.php" file or file permissions, see the Note below.
[Note: During the installation process, Drupal will try to automatically create a “settings.php” configuration file in the folder “C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default”.
Generally, “settings.php” file will be created without any problem during the installation process, and you don't need to create it manually.
If “settings.php” file creation fails, you will need to create this file manually in the folder “C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default”.
To create the “settings.php” file:
Make a copy of the file “default.settings.php” located at “C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default”, and name the copied file as “settings.php”. Keep the file “settings.php” in the same location “C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default”.
To do it easily, open the file “default.settings.php” which is located at “C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default” in a text editor. Save it as “settings.php”. After saving, you will have both the “default.settings.php” file and the “settings.php” file in the folder “C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default”.
After the installation has completed, the file “settings.php” must be made “Read-only” for security of your site. To make “settings.php” a “Read-only” file: Right-click on the file, select “Properties” in the context menu. Check “Read-only” in the Attributes section, then click OK.]

8) Installation progress

You will see the installation progress page as shown below.

After the installation progress completes, the “SITE INFORMATION” page is displayed as shown below.
Enter the site configuration details.

• Write the “Site name”and the “Site e-mail address”.
• Write the “Username” for the administrator account.
• Write the “E-mail address” of the administrator.
• Enter administrator password in “Password” and “Confirm password” fields.
• Choose “Default country” and “Default time zone”.
• You can choose to check for updates automatically and to receive e-mail notifications.

9) Installation completed

You will see the “Drupal installation complete” page as shown below.
Click on “Visit your new site” link.

You will see your Drupal site's home page as shown below.

Now, you can configure and design your website using the wonderful features of Drupal.