Let me explain the problem:
I had installed XAMPP, and unfortunately did not like it. I decided to uninstall it and did so, destroying the whole directory in the process.
Now, a week later, I have Apache (non-XAMPP). However, it is not working when I try to access it with localhost or 127.0.0.1. It displays a 403 error. I suspect it had to happen with my installation of XAMPP, because the XAMPP logo was displaying for a while during this problem.
How do I fix this problem? I do want to have the awesome Apache really badly!