VBulletin on Hard Drive
 

Is it possible to install vBulletin on my hard drive so I can learn how to do things like create banner ads and test them before making the actual changes on the live version? thanks!!

I don't know why not, although I haven't actually done it. I use something called "xampp" http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html which installs apache, PHP and MYSQL in a development configuration for working on stuff at home. As I mentioned, I haven't actually done a vBulletin install but I kind of expect it would work.

I use XAMPP myself and it works great. Easy setup, easy use and best of all it works.

XAMPP will guide you through the install process and tell you where to put the vbulletin or any other content that you want to display on the local server.

From there, setup is just like on a normal live server.