How can I change MariaDB to MySQL in XAMPP?

Running XAMPP with MySQL

Here are exact step by step instructions for truly integrating MySQL into XAMPP on Windows. This has been successfully tested with Windows 10 and XAMPP 7.3.11 for both MySQL 8.0.18 and 5.7.28.

  • Stop MySQL (which actually is MariaDB) in the XAMPP Control Panel.
  • Download the MySQL community server as zip archive (Windows 64 bit version)
  • Rename C:\xampp\mysql to C:\xampp\mariadb
  • Extract the downloaded zip archive to C:\xampp\mysql. Make sure you extract the folder level which has the subfolders bin, include, lib etc.
  • Copy C:\xampp\mariadb\bin\my.ini to C:\xampp\mysql\bin
  • Open C:\xampp\mysql\bin\my.ini in an editor and comment out the line starting with key_buffer= in the [mysqld] section.
  • Open a command prompt and run the following commands:

    For MySQL 8.0.18:

    cd C:\xampp\mysql
    bin\mysqld --initialize-insecure
    start /b bin\mysqld
    bin\mysql -u root
        CREATE USER pma@localhost;
        SOURCE C:/xampp/phpMyAdmin/sql/create_tables.sql;
        GRANT SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, ALTER ON phpmyadmin.* TO pma@localhost;
        ALTER USER root@localhost IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY '';
        ALTER USER pma@localhost IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY '';
        \q
    bin\mysqladmin -u root shutdown
    

    For MySQL 5.7.28:

    cd C:\xampp\mysql
    bin\mysqld --initialize-insecure --log_syslog=0
    start /b bin\mysqld --log_syslog=0
    bin\mysql -u root
        CREATE USER pma@localhost;
        SOURCE C:/xampp/phpMyAdmin/sql/create_tables.sql;
        GRANT SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, ALTER ON phpmyadmin.* TO pma@localhost;
        \q
    bin\mysqladmin -u root shutdown
    
  • Start Apache and MySQL in the XAMPP Control Panel.

  • Go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin and verify that your database server is now reported as MySQL Community Server.

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