Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Jim Huether གིས-
Number of replies: 7

I'm really looking for the easiest way to install Moodle on my Windows 7 PC. I am not a prgrammer. I tried downloading Moodle for Windows from SourceForge, but I guess I didn't get SQL or the server, though I thought that would be included. Then based on a suggestion from someone in the forums. I uninstalled and removed what I had, and downloaded it along with the Microsoft IIS7 for Windows. That came up with a basic Moodle shell at http://localhost/moodle. The only problem is that it would not let me load files larger than 2MB! Since I was trying to restore a backedup course from another iste, I needed to be able to upload much more than 2 MB. I went to php.ini and changed the values of post_max_size and upload_max_filesize to 100MB, but it wouldn't let me save the updated file. It said permission denied. Since I am the administrator of my own PC, I have no idea why it wouldn't let me do it.

In any case, I uninstalled all that, and now I am looking for a way to install Moodle, either 1.9.x or 2.0 on my Windows 7. Does anyone know of a reliable and easy way to do this for someone who is not a programmer?

I'd really appreciate good specific help. I'm beginning to think that open source isn't all it's cracked up to be if Moodle can't be installed without having to tweak a bunch of values in a bunch of files, and then not having permission to do so.

Jim

 

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In reply to Jim Huether

Re: Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Glenys Hanson གིས-

Hi Jim,

I'm not a programmer either and, after a few false starts, this is the way I installed 1.9.10 on Windows 7:

  1. I went to Xampp and installed a Xampp server (very easy - just like installing any application in a few clicks).

  2. Then I downloaded Moodle 1.9.10 from Standard Moodle Packages and installed it on the Xampp server.

The 2 MB limit is no problem as all the files are on your hard disk. You just have to find them. On my computer the path is: C: > xampp > data > moodledata

Inside moodledata you see a numbered list of folders each one being a course.

If this is all too succinct, write again and ask for more help or read Installing Moodle (some of it is irrelevant for a local installation).

Cheers,

Glenys

Attachment 08-12-2010 15-37-44.png
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In reply to Glenys Hanson

Re: Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Jim Huether གིས-

Glenys,

I downloaded and installed the xampp server code at C:/xampp and started it.

Then I went to the moodle download site and downloaded the Moodle 1.9.10+ zip file. I then extracted it to C:/moodle

Now what do I do?

Jim

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In reply to Jim Huether

Re: Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Glenys Hanson གིས-

Hi Jim,

In xampp > htdocs create a folder called "moodle" and extract (or move) the contents of the Moodle 1.9.10+ zip file there. See screenshot below.

Cheers,

Glenys

Attachment 08-12-2010 21-29-41.png
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In reply to Glenys Hanson

Re: Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Nathan Cobb གིས-

Just to agree with all the comments above.  I installed Moodle 2.0 on my Windows 7 laptop using xampp last night.  The whole process took less than 45 minutes including the xampp install and troubleshooting a problem with unicode.

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In reply to Glenys Hanson

Re: Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Jim Huether གིས-

Glenys,

Thanks SO much. So I did that, now how do I start it up?

Jim

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In reply to Jim Huether

Re: Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Glenys Hanson གིས-

Hi Jim,

In your browser, go to: http://localhost/moodle/

Just follow the instructions on the screen. Choose "unattended installation" (or something like that) and it will install itself. Takes a few minutes. You will be asked to create and "Administrator" account. Note down the password you create.

Good luck!

Glenys

There's more information on this page: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_Moodle_on_Windows_Vista if you scroll down until you see "Alternative Installation method". It refers to Vista but it's the same on Windows 7.

དཔྱ་སྙོམས་ཀྱི་སྐུགས་ཚུ།: -
In reply to Glenys Hanson

Re: Easiest way to install Moodle on my PC?

Jim Huether གིས-

Well I'm ready to give up. It's just not working for me. When I go to http://localhost/moodle the web page comes up with this error.

HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error

The requested page cannot be accessed because the related configuration data for the page is invalid.

Detailed Error Information
Module IIS Web Core
Notification BeginRequest
Handler Not yet determined
Error Code 0x80070003
Config Error Cannot read configuration file
Config File \\?\C:\inetpub\wwwroot\moodle\web.config
Requested URL http://localhost:80/moodle
Physical Path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\moodle
Logon Method Not yet determined
Logon User Not yet determined
Config Source 
   -1: 
    0:
Links and More InformationThis error occurs when there is a problem reading the configuration file for the Web server or Web application. In some cases, the event logs may contain more information about what caused this error.

View more information »

 

It seems like even though I uninstalled all the IIS7 stuff I had loaded before, there is still some vestige of it hanging around. So then I tried starting again with the xampp load and extract, and it would not complete because it couldn't create certain files. So then instead of extracting to C:/xampp I tried extracting it to C:/Users/Jim/xampp, and then that worked, and I was able to view the Apache Friends Edition control panel. I then extracted the Moodle 1.9.10 zip file to C:/Users/Jim/xampp/htdocs/moodle and that happened OK. I didn't see any Moodle Start file so I went to the Apache friend Edition control panel, and It listed Apache, MySQL, Filezilla, Mercury and Tomcat. I wasn't sure whether I should check the SVC boxes or not, so I tried Starting just the Apache and the MySQL. that seemed to work, but when I then went to http://localhost/moodle I got the error page above.

I don't know if anyone can help me, but I have now tried 4 different ways to install Moodle on my Windows 7 PC, and none of them have worked as described. Myave I should install Linux and try that, but somehow I figure that will be even more of a problem. There just doesn't seem to be a good well-documented way to load Moodle onto a Windows 7 machine that actually works.

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