Apache Friends Support Forum

Hi guys, I'm new here. I have exactly the same issue of spiderm81, as shown in the topic "localhost not working after malware (Vista) 1.7.7 [SOLVED]"

http://community.apachefriends.org/f/viewtopic.php?p=189821&sid=b181e5ad383912fb517ceed8f238ae89#p189677

except that I'm working on a laptop with windows 7 and the passage so kindly explained by Sharley:

Click on start>run>cmd.exe
Type:
netsh winsock RESET
Click OK

Restart your PC and again try and start Apache

it's not working for me because I cannot reset my winsock. Console tells me it could not load wshelper.dll.
Maybe this is not the right place to ask for but, after 5 days of torment and tons of ms useless suggestions read, and a deadline deadly approaching, I'd really want to die because, of course, I really CANNOT do a system repair...
Any idea?
thanks in advance

Does running this fix the DLL issue? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

Hi Hackattack, thanks a lot for your reply. I ran it, but with no success: it says: everything's OK.
Uh, I forgot to say that the dlls ARE where they have to (of course! usual-win-nightmare-style), and I still navigate the web and my laptop is perfectly working, so the prob is just about xampp. If I stop apache my hanging browser changes state and say "cannot connect to localhost", so... no escape.
Thanks

EDIT:
just to know, it was Avira AntiVir that caused the problem. It deleted my HOSTS file (!) and - I suppose - did something to dlls permission, or whatever.
And they know they have issues with xampp, as seen here:

[a]https://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=132967[/a] (sorry, but how to add a link here?!)

I'm trying them way (even if I deinstalled antivir twice...) but... nothing.
Going to my web server in this very early stage of development is a real mess...

If you can access XAMPP by http://127.0.0.1 then recreating the HOSTS file should help if you are trying to access via http://localhost See here for help with that: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972034

thank you. I've already tried to recreate HOSTS. the problem is - I suppose - something about wshelper.dll's authorization and the subsequent impossibility to reset my winsock. So, I'm still stuck. Probably I have to recover windows, damn.