Drupal, XAMPP Getting Started

drupal-xampp-getting-started

Download Drupal at https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal
Unzip the compressed drupal file. 
Rename the drupal-[version-number-goes-here] to drupal (so you can access it easier as: http://localhost/drupal).
Move the drupal folder to your XAMPP htdocs folder.
Start XAMPP and go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/
Create a new database in phpMyAdmin for your drupal sites.
Go to http://localhost/drupal and go through the installation process.
As this is just used for local development, for email address just use anything, even noreply@example.com (you can change it through Configuration > Site Information at a later time).
After the last step click the link "Visit your new site".
More: https://www.drupal.org/node/307956

To install a new theme:
Go to https://www.drupal.org/project/project_theme to choose and download a theme.
Unzip it to (in your drupal project directory): /sites/all/themes
On your drupal site, click the "Appearance" menu item at the top, and on the Appearance page find your plugin and click the "Enable" link.
Once it has been enabled, click the "Set default" link.