How to Install BookStack on Windows 10

BookStack is a free and open-source platform used for creating documentation websites. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing BookStack on a Windows 10 machine.

Requirements

To install BookStack on your Windows 10 machine, you need to fulfill the following requirements:

• A Windows 10 machine with administrative privileges
• WAMP or XAMPP server installed on your machine
• PHP version >= 7.3
• MySQL version >= 5.5

Step 1: Download BookStack

First, you need to download the latest version of BookStack from the official website at https://www.bookstackapp.com/.

Step 2: Extract the Zip File

After downloading the latest version of BookStack, extract the zip file to the web root directory of your WAMP or XAMPP server. The web root directory is usually located in C:/wamp64/www or C:/xampp/htdocs.

Step 3: Create MySQL Database

Next, you need to create a new database for the BookStack installation. Open the MySQL command line tool and execute the following command:

CREATE DATABASE bookstack;

Replace "bookstack" with the name you want to use for your database.

Step 4: Configure MySQL

After creating the database, you need to create a new user and grant that user access to the database. Execute the following commands to create the user:

CREATE USER 'bookstack_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON bookstack.* TO 'bookstack_user'@'localhost';

Replace "bookstack_user" with the username you want to use and "password" with the password you want to use.

Step 5: Configure BookStack

Now, you need to configure BookStack to use the MySQL database you just created. To do this, open the .env.example file in the BookStack directory and rename it to .env.

Open the .env file and change the following lines:

APP_URL=http://localhost/
APP_DEBUG=true
DB_DATABASE=bookstack
DB_USERNAME=bookstack_user
DB_PASSWORD=password

Replace "bookstack", "bookstack_user" and "password" with the values you used in Step 3 and Step 4.

Step 6: Start the Web Server

Finally, start your web server (WAMP or XAMPP) and visit http://localhost/bookstack in your web browser.

You will be redirected to the BookStack installation page where you need to create a new admin account and fill in the required details.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed BookStack on your Windows 10 machine!

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