I am not really happy with this at all.
When I first got into web development a few years ago, XAMPP was really straight forward: install and go. I took a couple of years off to go back to college and now this VM version is way too technical. I cannot access my files unless I start up the vm. I had a ton of work started on a website that I now have to rebuild because the databases are stored in unknown files and I have no clue how to get them into vm. I know I could probably click and drag the folders, but which ones and where are they? Tried to install the last native version available, but since there is no uninstaller for the outdated version (and they all have the same name in the application folder) I have no clue which ones to drag to the trash... or how to completely uninstall them. I did read to go into some .bitami folder...no idea how to find it.
But the biggest problem I have is that the vm must be running to access my html and php text documents. There is no folder to access them when the vm is off.
I know a lot of you may be really advanced and think this isn't a big deal, but at the moment I feel like I need to go back to college to pursue an IT degree just to use xampp and I'm very frustrated. And there is no help I can find--and understand--to help get all my files back to a usable state.