How to Install Open Source POS on Windows 11

Open Source POS is a free and open source point of sale (POS) software that enables small businesses to manage their sales, inventory, and customer information. This tutorial will walk you through the step-by-step process of installing Open Source POS on your Windows 11 machine.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that your machine meets the following requirements:

• Windows 11 operating system
• PHP 7.2+ with required extensions enabled
• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+
• Apache web server

Step 1: Downloading Open Source POS from Github

The first step is to download the Open Source POS project from its Github repository. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Open your web browser and navigate to https://github.com/opensourcepos/opensourcepos.
2. Click on the green "Code" button, and then choose "Download ZIP".
3. Save the zip archive to your local machine.

Step 2: Extracting the Open Source POS Archive

Once the download is complete, extract the contents of the ZIP archive to a folder on your local machine.

Step 3: Configuring the Apache Webserver

To run Open Source POS, you will need to configure your Apache web server to serve the project files. Follow the steps below to configure your Apache web server:

1. Open the "httpd.conf" file in your Apache server configuration directory.
2. Add the following code at the end of the file:

<Directory "C:/path/to/extracted/folder">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Replace "C:/path/to/extracted/folder" with the path to the folder where you extracted the Open Source POS archive.

3. Save the file and restart your Apache web server.

Step 4: Configuring the MySQL Database

To store your Open Source POS data, you will need to configure a MySQL database. Follow the steps below to configure your MySQL database:

1. Open your MySQL client, such as phpMyAdmin or MySQL Workbench.
2. Create a new database and name it "opensourcepos".
3. Create a new user with full privileges for the "opensourcepos" database.
4. Update the Open Source POS configuration file "application/config/database.php" with the new MySQL database and user information.

Step 5: Running the Open Source POS Installer

Once your Apache server and MySQL database are both configured, you can run the Open Source POS installer. Follow the steps below to run the installer:

1. Open your web browser and navigate to your Apache web server with the Open Source POS project files, for example, http://localhost/opensourcepos/.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.
3. Once installation is complete, you can access the Open Source POS interface in your web browser by navigating to http://localhost/opensourcepos/.

Conclusion

With this tutorial, you should now be able to install Open Source POS on your Windows 11 machine. Remember to always keep your software up to date, and take regular backups of your database to avoid data loss.

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