Crashed local development - installing new XAMPP - Pre-Plan

[Isador]

Time for us to get busy with our new site. Unfortunately, the local workstation we were developing it on was wiped out due to a virus crashing that workstation. Thankfully, we have daily backups.
We use XAMPP for local development and have been very happy with it. There's enough plugins for WordPress (which we use) to perform a transfer to hosting such as yours. We do not know what version of XAMPP we were using (not sure where to find that); but we intend to do a fresh install of XAMPP and then see if we can transfer all our work into it. I've been told that any platform using PHP 8.0 is a no-no at this time. Question #1: Is that true?

So, we are planning on using the version of XAMPP that uses PHP 7.4.13-0 (which would also include Apache 2.4.46, MariaDB 10.4.17, Perl 5.32.0, OpenSSL 1.1.1h (UNIX only), and phpMyAdmin 5.04.
In order to (hopefully) eliminate any complications during the transfer to our hosting provider, we need your advice as to whether we will be using the proper XAMPP version. (We have left a message for that hosting service as well.)

I see there are a number of articles on your site that may be relevant, sure would like to not spend a couple of days reading everything only to find out each wasn't quite relevant.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

[Altrea]

We do not know what version of XAMPP we were using (not sure where to find that)

Luckily i have made a post giving you information about where you can find the version: [Q&A] Insufficient debug information - base information
But you have written a post previously naming your version information (PHP 7.3.2 - so XAMPP 7.3.2): viewtopic.php?f=16&t=79146&p=267738#p267738

but we intend to do a fresh install of XAMPP and then see if we can transfer all our work into it. I've been told that any platform using PHP 8.0 is a no-no at this time. Question #1: Is that true?

Depends. PHP 8 is only a few days released. So the biggest problem would be the compatibility of the used webapplications. So you need to check if wordpress and all of your used plugins do support PHP 8.

So, we are planning on using the version of XAMPP that uses PHP 7.4.13-0 (which would also include Apache 2.4.46, MariaDB 10.4.17, Perl 5.32.0, OpenSSL 1.1.1h (UNIX only), and phpMyAdmin 5.04.
In order to (hopefully) eliminate any complications during the transfer to our hosting provider, we need your advice as to whether we will be using the proper XAMPP version. (We have left a message for that hosting service as well.)

We cannot tell you that. Recommended is to choose a version getting as close as possible to the versions your webhosting is using.

[Isador]

Very Helpful, Thank you very much. It gives me a path to follow and very helpful insights.

[Altrea]

You are welcome