Help with installing WordPress on Windows, in root. Getting 500 error.

  • Gary Gordon

    (@garymgordon)


    15 years, 9 months ago

    Here’s the problem:

    If I do a FRESH install of WordPress to a new “subfolder” of my domain at http://www.greatersba.org, such as http://www.greatersba.org/wp/ or anything else, it works perfectly.

    But, if I try to do the install from the root (wwwroot) at http://www.greatersba.org .. I get the 500 error.

    I can actually install it in the ROOT of the site by going through the wp-admin/install.php .. but after it installs, … when I try to go to the index.php file (to look at the public site) .. or if I try to go to any other page, such as http://www.greatersba.org/?page_id=2 .. I continue to get the 500 error message. (Note: When I go through the install process, it said it couldn’t write and create the wp-config.php file so I had to manually create this. But .. when I installed it to a sub folder, I didn’t have this issue. Odd .. huh?)

    But again, if I install it in a sub folder of http://www.greatersba.org, I have no problems at all. The problem is only when I try to install and access the site from the ROOT.

    So, .. what could it be about putting WordPress in the root that would be different (from a sub folder) and cause this problem.

    Any ideas on how to help? Again, I am on a Windows 2008 server 64 bit, with IIS7. I also have full permissions set to 777 on the wwwroot folder. So, I dont’ understand what the problem could be. But again I am on a Windows 2008 server running 64bit.

    Thanks,
    Gary

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • jon

    (@adiant)

    15 years, 9 months ago

    OK, I don’t know enough about Windows Server environments to be of any help there.

    But, I do know that I’ve come to the conclusion that installing WordPress in the root is just plain dumb. I adapted this article’s instructions:
    http://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory
    into a standard approach:
    Install WordPress into a folder, get it working, then move it to the root by moving the one or two files mentioned in the above article. And a couple of quick edits.

    It has all sorts of other benefits, too, in terms of making a quick switch between two “instances” of WordPress, in two different folders.

    ClaireR

    (@clairer)

    15 years, 9 months ago

    Why ‘dumb’ adiant? What are the disadvantages?

    jon

    (@adiant)

    15 years, 9 months ago

    It has been 6 months since I wrote this in another post, so I think it best I say it again here, rather than point at the previous post. Feel free to disagree:

    I am a huge fan of the strategy described in this piece of documentation:
    http://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory
    It gives you the best of both worlds: WordPress in a subdirectory, yet visitors type in just the domain name to get to your blog (or whatever you decide to use as the WordPress home page).

    Why not just put WordPress in the root and be done with it?

    1. It is easy to get confused and accidentally delete other necessary files in the root when making a change to WordPress, thinking you just deleted a WordPress file;
    2. The above method allows really rapid switches from one WordPress instance to another, by having each in a subfolder, rather than one in the root.
    3. The above method encourages initial testing of WordPress in a subfolder, rather than the root, which reduces conflicts with index.html and other files in the root that take precedence on most hosts. Especially on a new domain where the web host has installed its own index.html as a placeholder.

    desimon

    (@desimon)

    15 years, 4 months ago

    Hi garymgordon,

    I had this exactly same problem. The solution is simple.
    In your root index.php of wordpress, change the line:

    /** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require('./wp-blog-header.php');

    to

    /** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require('wp-blog-header.php');

    This works fine for me. I don’t know why IIS don’t work with this kind of path.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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