Kosenko wrote:The issue here was that I had to set Apache to listen on port 8000 in order to get it to work with Windows Firewall. That is where the localhost:8000 is coming from. Whatever is set in the httpd.conf file has no effect whatsoever in enabling localhost.
If you changed the Listen directive to Listen 8000 then
http://localhost:8000/xampp/index.php will give you the XAMPP Welcome page provided that Apache and MySQL are running after clicking on Start in the control panel.
C:\xampp\apache\logs\error.log file will give clues if this is not the case.
Kosenko wrote:The next issue is that I cannot get Apache to recognize ANY subdirectories except /XAMPP. In other words, the installation turns out to be completely useless for testing other PHP applications like Drupal, since it keeps giving an "object" or "URL" not found error.
And again the error.log file is where you will find the clue for these types of errors.
http://localhost:8000/drupal7/subdirectory will find the index file in the subdirectory if the folder structure resembles C:\xampp\htdocs\drupal7\subdirectory
Try renaming or deleting the index.php and index.html found in the htdocs folder.
You have to use an http:\\ URI to see php files not typing a path.
It would help if you told us what you are typing in the browser to access these folders.
Kosenko wrote:C:/xampp/htdocs/xampp installation always defaults to this
C:/xampp/htdocs/drupal7 (apache will not recognize)
C:/xamp/htdocs/xamp/drupal7 (moved to test . . . apache will not recognize).
BTW you can't put Drupal or any other file or folder in the XAMPP
system folder C:\xampp\htdocs\xampp as this is protected and will give a 403 error.
Kosenko wrote:XAMPP on Windows appears to be useless.
Only for you and not for the millions of other successful XAMPP users who had it working right 'out of the box'.
New users can find self help by reading these first:
readme_en.txt file in the xampp folder.
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.htmlhttp://www.apachefriends.org/en/faq-xampp-windows.htmlSome useful reading that may help you help us to find suitable solutions:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=48331viewtopic.php?f=16&t=32670