Portable applications are very useful for getting work done on the go, but how about portable servers?
Download the latest version of XAMPP Lite (link below).
spin up the installer, and click Browse choose where to install your server.
XAMPP will create an xampplite folder and store all the files in it during the installation.
Click Install, and all of the files will be extracted to your flash drive.
This may take a few moments depending on your flash drive’s speed.
When the extraction process is finished, a Command Prompt window will open to finish the installation.
Now enter “y” to configure XAMPP’s directories automatically.
Finally, enter “y” to make XAMPP fully portable.
XAMPP will finalize your changes; press Enter when everything is completed.
Setup will automatically launch the command line version of XAMPP.
On first run, confirm that your time zone is correct.
And that’s it!
launch the xampplite folder on your flash drive and launch xampp-control.exe.
Click Start beside Apache and MySql to get your webserver running.
To keep XAMPP portable, you do not want it running as a service!
Windows Firewall may prompt you that it blocked the server; click Allow access to let your server run.
If everything is working correctly, you should see this page in your web app.
Choose your default language…
And then you’ll see the default XAMPP admin page.
hit the Status link on the left sidebar to ensure everything is running correctly.
Now you’ve got the option to add your own webpages to your webserver.
Save all of your web files in the \xampplight\htdocs\ folder on your flash drive.
Download WordPress (link below), and extract the files to the \xampplite\htdocs folder on your flash drive.
Now all of the WordPress files are stored in \xampplite\htdocs\wordpress on your flash drive.
We still need to setup WordPress on our portable server.
Open your MySql admin page http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ to create a new database for WordPress.
Enter a name for your database in the “Create new database” box, and click Create.
smack the Privileges tab on the top, and the select “Add a new User”.
Using WordPressNow, in your web client, enter http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php.
Click Create a Configuration File to continue.
You should now have the database all ready to go.
Click “launch the install” to finish installing WordPress.
You now have a portable install of WordPress.
Click “access” to access your WordPress admin page.
input your username and password, and click access.
This is a great way to experiment with WordPress without messing up your real website.
Alternately, you might shutdown your server by running xampp_stop.exe from your xampplite folder.
ConclusionXAMPP Lite gives you a great way to run a full webserver directly from your flash drive.
