WordPress on Windows Server

WordPress on Windows Server

WordPress does not need IIS, and it does not need Linux. It is three things — some PHP code, a web server to run it, and a database for its content — and all three run natively on Windows. WinPanel sets the whole thing up from one button.

The short version

1. Install WinPanel and open it.
2. Press Add a website and choose WordPress.
3. Give it a name and, if you have one, a domain.

The panel downloads the current WordPress from wordpress.org while you watch, creates a MariaDB database with a login that can reach only that database, writes the configuration, and starts everything as services that come back after a reboot. When it finishes it opens WordPress' own one-minute setup — naming the site and making your login — and from there it is an ordinary WordPress.

How it actually runs

Understanding the parts makes the rare problem much easier to place.

PHP. WordPress is written in PHP. On Windows the right build is the Non-Thread-Safe one, run through FastCGI — what PHP's own documentation recommends. Because a single PHP process on Windows answers one request at a time, WinPanel runs a small pool of PHP workers per site and the web server shares requests across them, so one slow page never queues the rest.

The web server. Caddy takes each request, hands the PHP pages to the pool, and serves the images, CSS and JavaScript straight off disk. It also gets the free HTTPS certificate and renews it.

MariaDB. Every post, page and setting lives in a MySQL-compatible database. WinPanel installs MariaDB as a service and gives each site its own databases, so one site's login can never read another's.

Databases

A site's Databases tab lists what it has and lets you add more within the site's allowance. A database browser is built into the panel — press Open beside a database to look at and edit its tables, signed in automatically, without installing anything. It runs on a private, loopback-only server behind the panel's own sign-in, and is never exposed on a public domain.

Your own PHP code

WordPress is the common case, not the only one. Choose A PHP website when adding a site to start from a starter page, or point the panel at a Git repository — one with an index.php is recognised automatically, including a public web root and a Composer install on each deploy when the project has a composer.json.

See also

• Install WinPanel
• Deploy a Website from GitHub
• Frequently Asked Questions