Almost everyday, I do something with WordPress, particular with themes. That’s because I like to mess around with it, experiment and really dive into all it has to offer. For most of us, we upload this to a web host, create a dummy account or dummy folder and work from it there.

I do that a fair bit but sometimes, you just don’t want to FTP in and out. Who knows, sometimes your Internet connection may be down or you just want to unplug while you get things done for a while.

But how do you unplug when your work is online? 

Hmm….

Why, run a web server on your own computer of course!

I love, love, love using Uniform Server for my own development because compared to other methods, it is super easy and always works - at least for me. Never failed. I have been getting my hands dirty with PHP sites since 2002 and working with WordPress since 2003-2004. Ever since, I’m always on the lookout for good packages to run a web server on my own computer so it would be easier to work on scripts before taking them live.

If you ever tried manually installing Apache, PHP and Linux on your computer you’d know that it is truly geeky. A throwback to those school days when the computer was still purely text (and the green screen you know?) Ugh. I don’t want to learn to run a web server or manage a database just so I can develop a theme. 

That’s why Uniform Server is a beautiful thing. It is small enough you can run it directly from your USB stick. Yup. Take your work with you - no Internet required.

It’s also amazingly easy to run. Just download the package, run the setup. Double click a file to start the server and voila! Instant server. Installing WordPress now becomes super easy too. No FTP - just copy your files over and set up the database as usual. Piece of cake. Try it you’ll fall in love with it.

Check out the video. You’ll see how I get the server running.