For the past week, I have been trying to get Apache, PHP, and MySQL running on my computer. I have installed and uninstalled XAMPP and the pieces separately. I think I have also installed an IIS along the way. I have been getting random pieces of help from various Internet searches. For a while, I gave up and decided to use the software, provided by my webserver. Progress was slow so I decided it was best to do development work on my PC then copy it to my webserver. I eventually bought more books which led me to the decision that using XAMPP is probably the best way to install it all. I realize now, that I should have done more research, before I began. Now, I have a big mess. I have extraneous pieces of previous installations, all over my computer (Windows XP home).
I have been told that I should do this:
==> First make sure all XAMPP components are stopped and no XAMPP components are running as a service. Double-click on "xampp-portcheck.exe" in the xampp folder and ascertain that all ports are free. If they are not free then disable any programs that are using any of those ports that XAMPP exclusively requires - then check again till you get all free responses.
So far, this is what I have done:
==> I ran "xampp-portcheck.exe" and found a bunch of Apache, MySQL, FileZilla, and Mercury stuff were running. I was told my two inetinfo.exe files should not be there unless I was running another server on ftp and smtp. I don't know anything about ftp and smtp but I think the two inetinfo.exe files are leftovers from when I installed an IIS (from my earlier desperate and random efforts to get this stuff working).
==> I set my system so I could see all hidden files and did a search for "php.ini" files and deleted those files, anywhere other than in the xampp\apache\bin folder.
Here are my questions:
(1) How can I disable my Internet Information Server (IIS) ?
(2) How do I "stop all XAMPP components"
(3) How do I "uninstall any XAMPP services"