Manual vs. One-Click WordPress Install: A Personal Journey

For reasons not related to this blog I decided to look into webhosting options. I found a service which offered one click WordPress installation and decided I might just as well start WordPress on that site as well. This one click did not work as expected and the installation didn’t run through to the end. At first I didn’t find the installation when surfing to the web address but after some fiddling around I managed to see the WordPress site. The control panel still said it wasn’t installed though. The other problem was that I could only install in the root and I didn’t want this. After reading on the internet about how to move an installation to a subfolder I didn’t get a one click solution and a lot of warnings. Instead of going through that pain I just manually deleted the WordPress installation (no one click uninstall option offered) and then downloaded the latest version from WordPress.org. I followed their installation instructions which were quite simple and it worked without problem with the installation going to the location I preferred. I also exported my posts here and imported them on the hosting platform without any hick-ups. To me this one click option is an example of trying to make something idiot proof in case there is really no need. The one click process ended up being many more clicks than the manual install. I have to admit that I had prior knowledge as I did a manual installation in the early days of WordPress, before the advent of one click install offerings. But this is so long ago that I had to go and read the instructions on WordPress again to know what the procedure is. Now I have an environment in which I can play around with additional options, like installing plugins, using MathML, using custom CSS and so on.