How to Install PrivateBin on Windows 10

PrivateBin is a free and open-source self-hosted web application that allows users to share and store messages and files in an encrypted manner. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing PrivateBin on Windows 10.

Prerequisites

  • A web server (e.g. XAMPP, WAMP, or Apache)
  • PHP 7.2 or higher
  • MySQL 5.6 or higher

Steps

  1. Download the latest release of PrivateBin from the official website https://privatebin.info/ or from the GitHub repository https://github.com/PrivateBin/PrivateBin/releases.
  2. Extract the downloaded ZIP archive to a web root directory (e.g. C:\xampp\htdocs\privatebin).
  3. Open the config folder and rename cfg.sample.php to cfg.php.
  4. Edit the cfg.php file to set up the database connection. Enter your MySQL host, username, password, and database name.
// Database configuration
$dbtype = 'mysql';
$dbhost = 'localhost';
$dbname = 'privatebin';
$dbuser = 'root';
$dbpass = '';
  1. Set up the encryption key by generating a random secret key in the cfg.php file. This key is used for encrypting and decrypting content. You can generate a secret key at https://www.random.org/strings/.
// Encryption key (make sure to use a different one than the one here) - this key protects the stored pastes from being read by anyone but the original author
// Can either be a string of 16, 24 or 32 hexadecimal characters (that's 64, 96 or 128 bit)
// or a string of up to 56 characters are hashed with SHA256 to generate a key
$cipherKey = 'pleaseGenerateYourOwnKey';
  1. Open your web server and navigate to http://localhost/privatebin (or wherever you extracted PrivateBin in step 2). If everything is set up correctly, you should see the PrivateBin home page.
  2. Start creating and sharing encrypted messages and files in PrivateBin!

Congratulations, you have successfully installed PrivateBin on Windows 10!