Wordpress is a free (as in beer and speech) open source blogging engine originally built upon the code of the b2 blogging engine.  In time it has become one of the most well known and used platforms in the blogosphere (and is the platform of choice for techwhimsy.com).  Wordpress comes in two flavours – WordPress.com, a free blogging service similar to Google’s Blogger, and the software package for installation on your own server, available at Wordpress.org.

Wordpress is extensible with themes that are easy to edit and a plethora of plug-ins and widgets.  It is also famous for its famous “5 minute installs”.

The video below demonstrates just how easy it is to install Wordpress on your Windows machine using the download available from Wordpress.org and the basic install of XAMPP to act as your web server, MySQL database and PHP host. Toggle the fullscreen view for best results.