1. Download XAMPP you can download XAMMP or light version doesn’t matter.

2. Install in your C drive You can skip the next few steps if you want if you’re not installing WPMU

a. C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\host change localhost to localhost.enter_a_name

b. Go To apache\conf\httpd.conf

c. Change

#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
to
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Continue with WP/WPMU install.

3. Download wordpress or wordpress-mu extract the files into your c:\xampp\htdocs dir.

4. Now run C:\xampp\xampp-control.exe and click on start button for apache and mysql.

5. Open your web browers and enter in the url: http://localhost/ or http://localhost.enter_a_name if did steps a, b, and c.

6. Select a language and click on phpMyAdmin.

7. In the Create new database fields enter wordpress and select utf8_unicode_ci and hit the create button.

8. Change url to http://localhost /your_word_press_folder/ or http://localhost.enter_a_name/your_word_press_folder/ in the Database section enter the following

Database Name:wordpress

User Name: root

Password: erase whatever is there and leave blank

Database Host: Leave it as “local host”

9. Fill in your Site Details and press Submit and your done!

So after an hour of pulling my hair out wondering why my image won’t display on my categories page. My theme had set my Categories or Archive page to display in summery mode. To change this or any of your page from summery mode back to a regular post. You have to find the code.
“the_excerpt” change to “the_content” to display the full article.

In my case I found it in the “archive.php”