A Visual Guide to Installing WordPress for the Complete Novice

Step Three: Entering Database Settings in config.php

Renaming the wp-config-sample.php file

WordPress comes with a file called “wp-config-sample.php”. This file contains various settings, but most importantly, it contains the code that will make your database connection. There are some default settings in this file that we need to edit to include the settings that will enable us to connect to the database that we just created. When we’re done editing the settings, we’ll need to remove the “sample” part of the file name and save this file as “wp-config.php”.

Navigate to your WordPress files and open the “wp-config-sample.php” now in your preferred text editor. You can use something as simple as notepad (included with Windows), or obtain a free, more feature-packed text editor like what I’m using, called HTML-Kit.

WordPress config.php Settings

Edit the wp-config.php file by adding your database settings

Now you simply enter the database settings that you specified and received from your host. Look at the very top of the page, see where it says “MySQL settings”? Now, after entering your database settings, choose “file”—>”save as” in your text editor and save this file as “wp-config.php” into the same directory.

WordPress config.php Settings

Continue with Step Four on the next page…