How to Configure and Initialize MySQL (8 or later version) on Windows without Installation If you need to use MySQL on Windows but don't want to go through the hassle of installing it, you can still use it by downloading the ZIP archive version of MySQL. Here are the steps to configure and initialize MySQL: Download the latest ZIP archive for Windows from the official MySQL website (https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/). Extract the ZIP archive to a folder of your choice (e.g., C:\mysql). Create a new file named my.ini in the MySQL folder (e.g., C:\mysql) with the following content: [mysqld] basedir=C:/mysql datadir=C:/mysql/data port=3306 Make sure to replace the basedir and datadir values with the path to your MySQL folder. Create a new folder named data inside the MySQL folder (e.g., C:\mysql\data). Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the MySQL folder (e.g., cd C:\mysql). Initialize the MySQL data directory by running the following
