Not to be cheeky with anyone in particular -
But this topic has been beaten to death here, usually with Altrea and Nobbie (sometimes me) posting the 'bad news'. XAMMP packages are suites (effectively) and there is no easy way to 'mix and match'.
However, its no huge task to install Apache, PHP and MySQL (pretty much as you wish). Then you can get just about the right package for whatever you choose to do, with a few disclaimers. The big pluses +++ for doing this ARE; you will gain far more insight into how these tools work, you will be able to do more things with them (such as run the package that won't run at the moment), you will be able to get help in more places -- as you will be running 'default, full-install versions' that are easier to debug and patch, and -- finally -- making them all work together (integration) will teach you 'what does what' (a topic that few really understand well).
As someone who has both workstations and servers, on various Linux and Windows OS'es setup in both suites -- like WAMP and XAMPP -- and fully installed service by service, I can tell you the learning curve difference is not so great. The reason -- the suites have many gotcha's that are only discovered by running right into them when you try to do something recommended on another forum or website, that using the working assumptions of a full product install on a 'real server'.
All that said, I think XAMPP is great for experimentation and limited personal site building. Its fantastic if you really want to use as intended -- for local development, testing and learning.
LOL - Long live XAMPP!!!