XAMPP - local host problems

I have picked up some possible answers to my problem here, but none have so far worked.

I have installed XAMPP but get the dreaded HTTP 404 error on both IE and Firefox when asking for 'http://localhost/'. I work with Dreamweaver but cannot get the testing server (XAMPP) to work, although I can connect to the linux/apache remote server.

Skype has been uninstalled. Therefore XAMPP is running on port 80 by itself.

XAMPP says Apache and Mysql have 'started'.

Is there someone that could please he开发者_开发问答lp me?

If some other software is using the same port as XAMPP, so please change it. Like Skype is using 80 or 443 change it and then run xampp.

Thanks Colin and nc3b,

In \xampp\apache\logs\error.log is this message:

httpd.exe: Syntax error on line 35 of C:/Program Files (x86)/xampp/apache/conf/httpd.conf: ServerRoot must be a valid directory

Line 35 says: ServerRoot "/xampp/apache"

Typed this C:\Program Files\xampp\apache into browswer which pointed me to apache_installservice which loaded (url c:/windows/system32/cmd.exe) saying apache isn't installed, went through a couple of yes/no questions on the dos type browser page - this resulted in the system saying several files could not be installed (chmod reasons).

When installing XAMPP, instead of going with the default drive of c:/ I instructed that XAMPP be installed in c:/programfiles - Duhhhh maybe this is my problem?

Will try reinstalling directly on the c:/ drive.

Thanks for pointing me in the direction..... will let you know the outcome....

Close Skype if you have it open... just a shot in the dark. If it fixes your issue, then change the port number it uses, I had an issue a while back where Skype prevented XAMPP from running.

I had exactly the same problem recently after installing node.js on windows 8, my wordpress admin stopped working. Here's what fixed the problem: I opened command line as administrator and type NET STOP HTTP. (this stopped the default windows web server which use port 80). After doing this I'm able to access my Wordpress administrator site which use port 80 by default.