WordPress 2.7 has a completely new look of its dashboard. It allows its users to arrange new modules by dragging and dropping them around.  It also provides new features such as  QuickPress, comment threading, paging, and the ability to reply to comments inside the dashboard. Moreover, it built in the ability to install any plugin directly from WordPress.org with a single click only.

On the upper side corner there is a new feature named “Screen Options” which allow you to check or uncheck the choices of the modules to be shown in the dashboard. The most excited news about WordPress 2.7 is that it built in the ability to allow you to automatically upgrade your future WordPress version with a single click.

Although some people don’t like the new dashboard of WordPress 2.7, I don’t mind to have that. I can understand why some people are not easy to accept new ideas, new looks, new technologies, and etc. For me I am ready. So this is the last time you ever have to manually upgrade WordPress again. If you are readdy, here we go:

• Check to see your host is compatible with WordPress 2.7.

• Check to find out your plugins are compatible with WordPress 2.7.

• Check to be sure your theme is compatible with WordPress 2.7.

• If everything works fine for you, then you can download WordPress 2.7 here.

• Deactivate all your plugins before you proceed.

• You can use WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin to upgrade to WordPress 2.7 in about two minutes (after that say bye-bye to this plugin because you don’t need it any more). If you like to manually upgrade your existing WordPress version to WordPress 2.7, just follow along.

• Back up all your WordPress files to your laptop/PC.  You may use FTP to get the job done.

• Back up your database. If you don’t know how, follow these instructions here.

• You should double check to make sure that your backups are usable.

• Delete the old WordPress files except the following files:
  • wp-config.php file
  • wp-content folder
  • wp-images folder (only older installations from 1.5.x days will have this folder)
  • wp-includes/languages/folder; if you are using a language file, and it is here rather than in wp-content/languages/, do not delete this folder (you might want to move your language files to wp-content/languages/ for easier upgrading in the future)
  • .htaccessfile (if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it)
  • Custom Content and/or Plugins (if you have any images or other custom content or Plugins inside the wp-content folder, do not delete them).

• You may use FTP to upload your unzipped WordPress 2.7 files to your WordPress directory.

• In your web browser, type http://www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin/ and hit enter. It will guide you whether you need to upgrade your database or not. It turns out that I needed to upgrade my database this time. (Make sure you replace yoursitename wiith your own domain name.)

• The final step is to reactivate all your plugins in the dashboard of your WordPress 2.7.

Now go ahead. Get familiar with the new features in WordPress 2.7 and enjoy!

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• First you have to find out whether you meet the minimum requirement. You can find the answer from you host account.

• Next you can get WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin to upgrade to WordPress 2.6.5 in about two minutes. For me I prefer to manually upgrade my WordPress blog.

• Next back up your database. If you don’t know how, these instructions will show you how.

• Then back up all your WordPress files to your laptop/PC.  I prefer using FTP.

• It is very important that you double check your backups to see whether they are usable.

• Next deactivate all your plugins since they may cause problems.

• Now go to download WordPress 2.6.5 to your laptop/PC.

• Delete the old WordPress files except the following files:
  • wp-config.php file
  • wp-content folder
  • wp-images folder (only older installations from 1.5.x days will have this folder)
  • wp-includes/languages/folder; if you are using a language file, and it is here rather than in wp-content/languages/, do not delete this folder (you might want to move your language files to wp-content/languages/ for easier upgrading in the future)
  • .htaccess file (if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it)
  • Custom Content and/or Plugins (if you have any images or other custom content or Plugins inside the wp-content folder, do not delete them).

• Upload your unzipped WordPress 2.6.5 files to your WordPress directory.

• Type http://www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin/ in your web browser and hit enter. It will direct you whether you need to upgrade your database or not. Make sure you replace yoursitename with your own domain name.

• Now head to reactivate your plugins and enjoy your WordPress 2.6.5 dashboard.

See it is not hard. Let me know if you run into any issues.

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For IIS users, 2.6.1 fixes several permalink problems. Image insertion problems in the Press This feature experienced by IE users are also fixed. Of note to everyone is a fix for a performance bug in the admin where those with a lot of plugins would experience slowness on some pages.” You may also want to find out the full list of over 60 fixes to see what WordPress 2.6.1 has to offer.

I just upgraded my existing WordPress version to WordPress 2.6.1 a moment ago. Everything went smoothly. If you are ready to upgrade to WordPress 2.6.1, then you may find the following steps useful:

• First of all you need to check whether you meet the minimum requirement. You can use the following code to check your minimum requirement.
  

  <?phpinfo();?>

  Here is what you need to do: Save the above code in a file as checkphpNmysql.php or any name you want. Then upload that file to your public_html directory, and run it as http://www.yoursitename.com/checkphpNmysql.php in your browser to find out your PHP version and MySQL version right away. Make sure you replace yoursitename with your own domain name.

• If you fulfill the minimum requirement, then you have two choices: (1) You can get WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin to upgrade for you in about two minutes. I’ve never tried it before so you are taking that choice on your own risk. (2) Alternatively you may upgrade to WordPress 2.6.1 manually.

• Next back up your database. Follow These instructions if you don’t know how.

• Use any FTP to back up ALL of your files in your WordPress directory to your PC (personal computer).

• Check your backups to see they are usable.

• Make sure you deactivate All your plugins.

• Download and unzip WordPress 2.6.1 here to your PC.

• Delete the old WordPress files except the following files:
  • wp-config.php file
  • wp-content folder
  • wp-images folder (only older installations from 1.5.x days will have this folder)
  • wp-includes/languages/folder; if you are using a language file, and it is here rather than in wp-content/languages/, do not delete this folder (you might want to move your language files to wp-content/languages/ for easier upgrading in the future)
  • .htaccess file (if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it)
  • Custom Content and/or Plugins (if you have any images or other custom content or Plugins inside the wp-content folder, do not delete them).

• Upload your unzipped wordpress-2.6.1 files to your WordPress directory.

• Run http://www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin/ as your normal login. From there it will direct you whether you need to upgrade your database or not. Make sure you replace yoursitename with your own domain name.

• If your WordPress is resided in a subdirectory called blog, then you need to run it as http://www.yoursitename.com/blog/wp-admin/ or http://www.blog/yoursitename.com/wp-admin/ depending on how you set up your blog.

• The last step is to make sure you reactivate those plugins that you deactivated earlier.

Did you see your new WordPress 2.6.1 interface? How do you like about it?

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I normally waited a week or two to see what problem(s) will emerge. I found out that a lot of people had have images uploading error after they upgraded to WordPress 2.5/WordPress 2.5.1. However this is just a minor issue and I already found a fix to it. Read Solution For WordPress Uploading Image Problem to find out how to solve that problem.

I just upgraded WordPress 2.5 to WordPress 2.5.1 recently. So far everything is fine. If you are interested in upgrade to it, then you may read on. The first thing is to find out you meet the minimum requirement. Below is the code that you can use to check your minimum requirement; but first save it as checkphpNmysql.php or any name you want:

Then upload that file to your public_html directory, and run it as http://www.yoursitename.com/checkphpNmysql.php in your browser to find out your PHP version and MySQL version right away. Make sure you replace yoursitename with your own domain name.

If you fulfill the minimum requirement, then you have two choices: (1) You can get WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin to do the job for you in about two minutes. I’ve never tried it before so you are taking that choice on your own risk. (2) Alternatively you may follow the instrcctions below to upgrade to WordPress 2.5.1:

• Back up your database. The instructions here show you how to do that.

• Use FTP to back up ALL of your files in your WordPress directory to your PC (personal computer).

• Make sure your backups are usable.

• Make sure you deactivate All your plugins.

• Download and unzip WordPress 2.5.1 here to your PC.

• Delete the old WordPress files except the following files:
  • wp-config.php file
  • wp-content folder
  • wp-images folder (only older installations from 1.5.x days will have this folder)
  • wp-includes/languages/folder; if you are using a language file, and it is here rather than in wp-content/languages/, do not delete this folder (you might want to move your language files to wp-content/languages/ for easier upgrading in the future)
  • .htaccess file (if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it)
  • Custom Content and/or Plugins (if you have any images or other custom content or Plugins inside the wp-content folder, do not delete them).

• Upload your unzipped wordpress-2.5.1 files to your WordPress directory.

• Run http://www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php in your browser. Make sure you replace yoursitename with your own domain name.

• If your WordPress is resided in a subdirectory called blog, then you need to run it as http://www.yoursitename.com/blog/wp-admin/upgrade.php.

• Make sure you reactivate those plugins that you deactivated earlier

Now go to explore your new WordPress 2.5.1 interface. Find out what are new there. Do you like this article? Don’t forget to subscribe! Your comments are welcome.

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To learn more about these features, visit What is New In WordPress 2.5? The article WordPress Upgrade Preparation Checklist also provides you more detail information of what you should look out for before upgrading to WordPress 2.5. It will be worth of your time.

I just upgraded WordPress 2.3.3 to WordPress 2.5 yesterday. Everything went smoothly. If you consider to upgrade your existing version to WordPress 2.5, the first thing is to find out you meet the minimum requirement. Create a file named checkphpNmysql.php or any name you want and put the following code in that file and save it:

Second upload that file to your public_html directory, and run it as http://www.yoursitename.com/checkphpNmysql.php in your browser to find out your PHP version and MySQL version right away. Make sure you replace yoursitename with your own domain name. If you do fulfill the minimum requirement, then download WordPress 2.5 here. The following steps for upgrading to WordPress 2.5 are pretty straightforward:

• Back up your database. Here are the instructions showing you how to do that

• Back up ALL of your files in your WordPress directory to your PC (personal computer)

• Check your backups to make sure they are usable.

• Deactivate All your plugins

• Unzipped wordpress-2.5 file you just downloaded

• Delete the old WordPress files except wp-config.php file, wp-content folder, wp-images folder (only older installations from 1.5.x days will have this folder), wp-includes/languages/ folder (if you are using a language file, do not delete this folder), .htaccess file (if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it), and Custom Content and/or Plugins (if you have any images or other Custom Content or Plugins inside the wp-content folder, do NOT delete them)

• Upload your unzipped wordpress-2.5 files to your WordPress directory

• Run http://www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php in your browser (Replace yoursitename with your own domain name).

• Reactivate those plugins that you deactivated earlier

That is it. Now go ahead and explore your new WordPress 2.5 interface. Get familiar with it.

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• Download WordPress 2.3.3 here and unzip it.

• Backup all your WordPress 2.3.2 files to your local computer.

• Delete all your WordPress 2.3.2 files from WordPress directory except wp-config.php file, wp-content folder, and .htaccess file on your server.

• Upload WordPress 2.3.3 to the location where you just deleted WordPress 2.3.2 files.

• Run http://www.youdomainname.com/wp-admin/install.php; make sure you change yourdomainname to be your own domain name.

That is all. Now WordPress 2.3.3 should be installed.

A few more things are worth mentioning here. First thing is that if you are currently using a vulnerability in the WP-Forum plug-in, make sure you remove it till further update is available from its author because this plug-in can be exploited to malicious user to retrieve usernames, password hashes, and email addresses for all users, including administrators. Therefore, the second thing you need to do is to use strong password instead and change it regularly.

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• Important! Backup all your WordPress files in your WordPress directory

• Deactivate all your plug-ins if you have any

• Download wordpress-2.3.2.zip here. After you’ve done that, unzip the file

• Delete the old WordPress files from your WordPress directory except wp-config.php file, wp-content folder, wp-images folder, wp-include/language/ folder, .htaccess file, and robots.txt file

• Upload all the unzipped files to your WordPress directory

• Once you’ve done that, run /wp-admin/upgrade.php and follow the instructions on the screen

• Find out database name, user name, password, and host name from your configuration.php which resides in your websites’s root directory

• Once you get through, it will ask you to enter your WordPress blog title and your login information. Just type your blog title and login

• There are no database upgrades this time

Good luck and enjoy your new WordPress 2.3.2!

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