Joomla! on Win 7

So, I got the Lenovo x220t and I'm using Win 7 because there's nothing in Linux that compares to MS Office One Note 2010; also, the Linux drivers and the software processing for the tablet input are not nice yet.

Well, Lyx wants to start playing with webpages so I installed Joomla! on the lenovo to start learning how to use it. The hat tip for all the steps and checks goes to my good old friend Orthus who coached me through the installation process. 

The first step towards getting a functional Joomla! in your Win 7 is to install Apache, mySQL and PHP. The good news is that there's a nice installer that solves all troubles: XAMPP.

1. Go to Apache Friends and get the stable release of XAMPP.
2. Right click on the file and choose: install as administrator.
3. Follow the instructions and choose the directory of installation, typically c:\xampp
4. Go to c:\xampp\php\ double click on the file named: php.ini, the notebook should open.  
5. Search for the line containing: error_reporting
6. Check that it says: error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
7. Save and close.
8. Create a folder named: c:\xampp\mywebpage  you will need it.
9. Go to Joomla! and get the latest stable release.
10. Double click in the downloaded zip file and extract the contect to: c:\xampp\mywebpage\

Ready. You have all the packages installed. It's time to configure everything!

1. Go to Start: Apache Friends: XAMPP (Sometimes an error message appear, do not mind it)
2. Start the MySQL and the PHP services.
3. Open your browser and type http://localhost/phpmyadmin/
4. Fill the data for a new database, newdatabase, and create it.
5. Open a new tab in your browser and type http://localhost/mywebpage/
6. Follow the installing instructions for Joomla!
7. When it asks you for the name of the webpage and database put the names you used for mywebpage and newdatabase, for the user name use admin and leave the password blank unless you set a password on step 4.
8. If you want, choose to install some filler data. Finish the installation.
9. Open the File Manager, go to c:\xampp\mywebpage\ and delete the folder named installation.
10. Open a new tab and type: http://localhost/mywebpage/  you should see the Joomla!: Welcome to the Frontpage.

Now, you can start thinkering with Joomla's templates.