Right click the downloaded XAMPP file > Extract All...
Right click the downloaded Drupal .zip file > Extract All...
Rename the extracte Drupal folder drupal
Cut the drupal folder inside the XAMPP/htdocs directory
Copy the extracted XAMPP directory to a safe location to run from, C:\Program Files for example
Run XAMPP/setup_xampp.bat to update the configuration files with the new server location
Run XAMPP/xampp-control.exe
Click the Start button next to Apache and MySQL
Navigate to XAMPP/mysql/bin
Hold the SHIFT key and right click in the white space > Open PowerShell windows here...
Type the following in the PowerShell window to setup the Drupal database
./mysql -u root
CREATE DATABASE drupal DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
GRANT ALL ON drupal.* TO 'drupal_rw'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'Dru4@l!!';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
exit
Open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP/drupal
Select a language > Click Save and continue
Select the Standard profile > Click Save and continue
Enter the database name, username and password > Click Save and continue
Create a site title and Drupal login > Click Install Drupal
When the installation completes, enter a site name, email address, username and password > Click Save and continue
Welcome to your very own, self-hosted Drupal installation