How to remove the "Powered by MediaWiki" logo from the footer

What is this logo?

MediaWiki is the software that runs your wiki. By default it shows a small badge in the footer. The footer is the strip at the bottom of every page. The badge is a "footer icon". You can hide it. MediaWiki is free software, so removing the badge is allowed.

You will edit a file called LocalSettings.php. It holds the main settings of your wiki. A small mistake in it can break your whole wiki. Take a backup of the file first.

Steps

1. Log in to your Hostvento client area at https://secure.hostvento.com/clientarea.php.
2. Open your hosting control panel.
3. Open File Manager.
4. Go to the folder where MediaWiki is installed. It often is public_html, or a sub-folder inside it.
5. Find LocalSettings.php. Right-click it and choose Copy to make a spare copy. Name the copy LocalSettings.php.bak.
6. Right-click LocalSettings.php and choose Edit.
7. Scroll to the bottom of the file.
8. Add this line on a new line, before any closing ?> tag if there is one:

$wgFooterIcons['poweredby'] = [];

This line tells MediaWiki to show no "powered by" icons.

9. Click Save Changes.
10. Reload your wiki in the browser. Press Ctrl and F5 together to skip the old saved page.

The badge should be gone.

If you want to remove only one icon

Some wikis have more than one icon, for example from extensions. To remove only the MediaWiki one, use this line instead:

unset( $wgFooterIcons['poweredby']['mediawiki'] );

This removes just the MediaWiki badge.

If it goes wrong

If you see a blank page or an error, you made a typing mistake. Open File Manager again. Delete the bad LocalSettings.php and rename your .bak copy back to LocalSettings.php.

Quick recap

• The badge is a footer icon controlled in LocalSettings.php.
• Back up the file before you edit it.
• Add $wgFooterIcons['poweredby'] = []; at the bottom.
• Save and reload with Ctrl + F5.
• Restore your copy if the wiki shows an error.