Skip to main content
Once Bearsampp is running, getting your first project online locally takes just a few steps. This guide walks you through opening the dashboard, placing your files, and using the tray menu to control your services.

​
Launch and open the dashboard

1

Start Bearsampp

Right-click bearsampp.exe and select Run as administrator. The Bearsampp bear icon appears in your Windows system tray and all services start automatically.If Bearsampp is already running, you will see the tray icon in the bottom-right corner of your taskbar.
2

Open the dashboard

Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost.The Bearsampp homepage loads and shows the status of every service — which ones are running and on which port. You also get quick links to phpMyAdmin, phpPgAdmin, and other tools.
If the dashboard does not load, Apache may not be running. Right-click the tray icon, go to Apache, and select Start to start the web server.
3

Place your project files

Open the www/ folder inside your Bearsampp directory (for example, C:\bearsampp\www\). Drop your project files into a subfolder:
C:\bearsampp\www\myproject\index.php
Your project is immediately accessible at:
http://localhost/myproject/
No restart or configuration change is needed — Apache serves everything in www/ automatically.
4

Access your project in the browser

Open your browser and go to http://localhost/yourproject/, replacing yourproject with the name of the folder you created.You can also access the www/ directory listing directly at http://localhost if you have not set a custom index file.

​
Control services from the tray menu

The system tray icon is your main control panel for Bearsampp. Right-click the bear icon to open the menu. From the tray menu you can:
  • Start all services — starts Apache, MySQL, MariaDB, and all other enabled services at once
  • Stop all services — shuts everything down cleanly
  • Restart all services — stops and restarts all services in sequence
  • Manage individual services — hover over any module (such as Apache or MySQL) to start, stop, or restart it on its own
  • Switch module versions — select a different PHP, MySQL, or other module version without reinstalling anything
  • Open logs — view access logs, error logs, and session logs for each service
The tray icon itself changes to indicate the current state: all services running, some services running, or none running. You can check overall status at a glance without opening any menus.

​
Open phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is bundled with Bearsampp and available as soon as MySQL or MariaDB is running. Open your browser and go to: 
http://localhost/phpmyadmin
Log in with the default root credentials (username root, no password) unless you have already changed the root password from the tray menu.
To change the database root password, right-click the tray icon, navigate to the database module (MySQL or MariaDB), and select Change root password.

​
Check service status on the homepage

The dashboard at http://localhost shows a live status summary for every service. Each service displays either started on port X or stopped, so you can tell at a glance what is running. The homepage also provides direct links to:
  • phpinfo() — full PHP environment details
  • phpMyAdmin — database administration for MySQL and MariaDB
  • phpPgAdmin — database administration for PostgreSQL
  • MailPit — view emails caught by the local SMTP server
  • Xlight GUI — FTP server management interface

​
Next steps

General settings

Configure language, hostname, browser, timezone, and startup behavior.

Virtual hosts

Set up custom local domains like myproject.local for cleaner URLs.

Switching versions

Switch between installed PHP, MySQL, or other module versions on the fly.

Modules overview

Learn how Bearsampp’s binaries, tools, and applications are structured.