2.3. Installing MySQL on Windows
A native Windows distribution of MySQL has been available from
MySQL AB since version 3.21 and represents a sizable percentage of
the daily downloads of MySQL. This section describes the process
for installing MySQL on Windows.
Note: If you are upgrading MySQL
from an existing installation older than MySQL 4.1.5, you must
first perform the the procedure described in
Section 2.3.14, “Upgrading MySQL on Windows”.
To run MySQL on Windows, you need the following:
-
A 32-bit Windows operating system such as 9x, Me, NT, 2000,
XP, or Windows Server 2003.
A Windows NT-based operating system (NT, 2000, XP, 2003)
permits you to run the MySQL server as a service. The use of a
Windows NT-based operating system is strongly recommended. See
Section 2.3.11, “Starting MySQL as a Windows Service”.
Generally, you should install MySQL on Windows using an
account that has administrator rights. Otherwise, you may
encounter problems with certain operations such as editing the
PATH environment variable or accessing the
Service Control Manager.
TCP/IP protocol support.
Enough space on the hard drive to unpack, install, and create
the databases in accordance with your requirements (generally
a minimum of 200 megabytes is recommended.)
There may also be other requirements, depending on how you plan to
use MySQL:
MySQL for Windows is available in several distribution formats:
Binary distributions are available that contain a setup
program that installs everything you need so that you can
start the server immediately. Another binary distribution
format contains an archive that you simply unpack in the
installation location and then configure yourself. For
details, see Section 2.3.1, “Choosing An Installation Package”.
The source distribution contains all the code and support
files for building the executables using the Visual Studio
2003 compiler system.
Generally speaking, you should use a binary distribution that
includes an installer. It is simpler to use than the others, and
you need no additional tools to get MySQL up and running. The
installer for the Windows version of MySQL, combined with a GUI
Configuration Wizard, automatically installs MySQL, creates an
option file, starts the server, and secures the default user
accounts.
The following section describes how to install MySQL on Windows
using a binary distribution. To use an installation package that
does not include an installer, follow the procedure described in
Section 2.3.5, “Installing MySQL from a Noinstall Zip Archive”. To install using a
source distribution, see Section 2.8.6, “Installing MySQL from Source on Windows”.
MySQL distributions for Windows can be downloaded from
https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/. See
Section 2.1.3, “How to Get MySQL”.
