How to Install WordPress on Windows Hosting (Plesk)

Plesk installs WordPress from its own application catalogue or the WordPress Toolkit, with no FTP client or manual database setup. Before you start, make sure the domain is added to the subscription and, if you plan to install below the root, that the target folder exists and is empty. If WordPress Toolkit is not in your menu, use Applications; both create the same install. See Plesk hosting for the panel itself.

1. Open your subscription in Plesk and go to Applications, or open the WordPress Toolkit directly.
2. Click Install next to WordPress and pick the domain plus the target directory — leave it empty for the site root.
3. Set the admin username, password and email. These are your wp-admin credentials, separate from the Plesk login.
4. Let Plesk provision the MySQL database; it writes the connection details into wp-config.php for you.
5. When the installer finishes, the site appears in the Toolkit with its version and update status listed.

It worked when the domain loads over HTTPS with the default theme showing, and /wp-admin/ accepts the credentials you set. If the installer stalls, the Toolkit entry shows the failure reason rather than leaving you with a browser error page.

IIS ignores .htaccess, so WordPress permalinks need a URL Rewrite rule in web.config instead. Pretty permalinks such as /post-name/ resolve only when the IIS URL Rewrite module is installed and a web.config file in the site root forwards unmatched requests to index.php. When the module is present and web.config is writable, WordPress writes the rule itself the moment you save Settings → Permalinks. If it cannot, it shows the rules to paste. The block core generates looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <rewrite>
      <rules>
        <rule name="WordPress: https://example.in" patternSyntax="Wildcard">
          <match url="*" />
          <conditions>
            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
          </conditions>
          <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
        </rule>
      </rules>
    </rewrite>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Test it: set Settings → Permalinks to Post name, open a post, and confirm the pretty URL loads without a 404. A 500 error at this point usually means a malformed web.config rather than a WordPress fault — restore the last known-good rule or ask support to place the standard block.

Not noticeably for most sites: PHP version, OPcache, page caching and database speed decide WordPress speed far more than the operating system. A Windows plan serves content sites and WooCommerce stores at normal speed when the PHP version is current, caching is on and the database responds fast — the same three levers that decide speed on Linux.

Keep the Toolkit's update runs enabled so core and plugin updates apply the day they ship. On a day-to-day basis that matters more to speed and security than the operating system does.