If you use a Windows PC you can install a WAMP Server
WAMP are initials for Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP which are the core technologies.
After installation, run WampServer and then extract the contents of the Joomla archive in the C:wampwwwmysite folder.
If you don’t have the Joomla installation archive, you can find the latest version here:
http://www.joomla.org/download.html
In order to setup your database visit the page http://localhost/phpmyadmin/
Click on the top-left the SQL icon and then run:
CREATE DATABASE `joomla1` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
CREATE USER ‘user1’@’%’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘your_password_here’; GRANT USAGE ON * . * TO ‘user1’@’%’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘your_password_here’ WITH MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS 0 ;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `joomla1` . * TO ‘user1’@’%’;
You can start the installation by entering http://localhost/myfirstsite on the address bar of your favorite browser and follow the easy step by step instructions.
The database name in this example is joomla1, username is user1 and the password is your_password_here (You might have to provide the port number such as 8080 to see that it is working.)
After installation you will be able to view a basic Joomla website. You can login the administration to start building your site by visiting:
http://localhost/myfirstsite/administrator/
Have fun!