Can Joomla Run on a Windows Server?

Some of our potential clients already have hosting plans on Windows Servers, and they prefer not to switch as they are already familiar with the system, so they come to us and ask us “Can I run Joomla on a Windows Server?”

Our answer is: “Of course you can”. Joomla can run on a Windows server that is running either IIS or Apache. All you need to do is the following:

• Install IIS or Apache
• Install and configure PHP
• Configure IIS or Apache to work with PHP
• Install MySQL and phpMyAdmin
• Create a database that will be used by your Joomla website
• Create a user (with limited access) that will connect to this database – do not connect as root!
• Install Joomla
• Modify the different file paths (such as the log_path and the temp_path in your configuration.php) in the application to the Windows folder format (for example: "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\mywebsite.com" instead of "/web/vhosts/www/mywebsite.com"
• Ensure that you have set the right write permissions on your sessions folder defined in php.ini

It is important to know that Joomla is not as stable as it normally is when it runs under Windows, because some of the PHP instructions are meant to work only under a LAMP environment, and there are some PHP functions (especially those pertinent to the sessions) that have known issues with IIS and/or Windows.

Note: If you’re trying to upload and the uploads are not working, this means that you have not set the proper permissions on the upload directories.

If you’re having problems installing Joomla on a Windows Server, and you feel you need help, then contact us! We’re here to help you 24/7/365 (or 366 in case of a leap year!).