Are there any easy ways to use MediaWiki as a personal wiki? For example, can MediaWiki be run from the desktop, without having to host it online? If not, do there exist any personal wikis that allow intricate features of template syntax? Thanks all,
Topic on Project:Support desk
Yes, but you need to install a webserver (and php, and a db engine. If its just your personal use, sqlite may be the easiest choice). Apache is a webserver that is available for almost every platform imaginable (if you're on Windows, see w:WAMP). Its not something that people do all that often, but its certainly do-able. (I have several copies of MediaWiki installed on my computer, some of which I use to keep notes in. However I'm a MediaWiki developer, so I'm not quite your average user)
Alternatively you can look into something like TiddlyWiki which is something developed with a use case closer to what you're asking for.
If you are using Ubuntu or another Linux distribution you may be able to use tasksel.
$ tasksel --list-tasks | grep 'lamp' i lamp-server LAMP server
You may also want to enable the Apache mod_alias module.