Installing MySQL database on Windows 8

Posted in Tutorials

This tutorial will show you how to install MySQL database on a local Windows 8 environment.  For web developers who want to setup a development environment on their local Windows 8 machine for developing web apps in WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, PHP, Ruby on Rails, or other, it sometimes helps to also install a MySQL database on their local machine.

Although you can install an all-in-one development package such as WAMP which comes with a MySQL, some might just want to install MySQL separately (especially if setting up for Ruby on Rails for example).

1. At mysql.com, find the download for MySQL Community Server.  This is the one with the GPL (General Public License) which is free and not the commercial versions.

2. You want to find the Windows MSI installer and download that.  This gives you an Windows installation wizard which would install the right version for you.  When downloading, look for the “No thanks, just start my download link” if you don’t want to login to download.

3. Run the MySQL MSI installer.  We will for the most part choose the default choices, except for the steps mentioned below.

For this example, we selected Developer Default Setup Type.  It may want to also install the dependences of Microsoft .Net Framework and other software — that’s fine.

Config Type: Development machine
Enable TCP/IP Networking

4.  When you get to the part where it asks to enter the database root password, come up with a good strong password…

5. In the step Windows Service Detail (shown below), we like to uncheck “Start the MySQL Server at System Startup“.  We prefer to start up the MySQL services manually as needed during development rather than to have it always on.

6. Because we set the MySQL service as “manual”, you may need to start and stop the MySQL Windows Service as needed in the Windows Control Panel -> Services as shown…

7.  After the installation completes, see that it has added some tiles in your Windows 8 start page …

8.  Click on the MySQL 5.6 Command Line Client, enter the root database password that you had set. You are now in the MySQL database command prompt…

Give it the command “show databases;” (note the semi-colon) and it will show the databases.  The command “exit” will exit the prompt.

9.  You can also manage the database via the MySQL Workbench by clicking on the tile in the start page …

10.  When done, stop the MySQL Service in Windows Services.

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