local host not working after starting xampp on xp

[newtoweb]

went thro' already posted threads related to this issue and have already verified following.
1.port 80 is available to apache (seen in port check of xampp control panel)
2. telnet localhost 80 gives no response.
3.host file has entry for local host 127.0.0.1 (not commented)
4.httpd.comf has DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs"

despite this http://localhost/xampp/htdocs/index.html shows DNS service error . in FF and IE7.
In IE 7 tried with lan setting in 'internet options' to 'automatically detect settings' as suggested in one of the thread.
Also no skype installed.

The only thing works is if I use https://127.0.0.1/webdav/index.html(also suggested in one of the threads)
However it works for only webdav folder. if I write https://127.0.0.1/htdocs/index.html or https://127.0.0.1/xampp/htdocs/index.html
browser shows url not found message again.
why is it works only for webdav and why http is not working?
Any help will be truly apprecaited

[MC10]

You do not include the "/xampp/htdocs" in your URL. So for your first link, it should be http://localhost/index.html, without the "/xampp/htdocs" part. All of your files must be in xampp\htdocs in order to be found through http://localhost/.