Completely blank after finishing installation

[Shan]

Hello,
I apologise in advance if this question has already been asked, but I searched and couldn't find anything remotely related to it.

I recently installed XAMPP 1.8.1 in order to duplicate my WordPress site for testing purposes. I'm using Windows 7.

I went through the whole of the instructions contained in http://lifeinthegrid.com/do-you-localhost-your-wordpress/ I got to the part about saving permalinks, etc., etc and did each of these but they resulted in blank pages, however when I checked the logs it said everything had been installed correctly.

When I navigate to http://localhost/testshanwatts/ all I get is a blank page. I have both Apache and MySQL running in XAMPP.

I'm a complete newbie and am not sure if this is an XAMPP issue or a Duplicator issue, but am hoping that someone might advise me on what to do or where to go in order to solve my problem?

Many thanks
Shan

[Altrea]

Hi Shan,

What do you get if you just type in http://localhost/ ?
Expected result would be the orange XAMPP administration page.
If this page is showing, everything with your Apache and PHP is okay and the problem is a wordpress one.

best wishes,
Altrea

[Shan]

Hi Altrea,

Thanks so much for responding. When I type the above into my browser, I get the following message:

Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at localhost.
The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

Does this mean I have something wrong with my settings?
Thanks for your assistance,
Shân

[Shan]

Actually, I'm sorry. It helps if I turn Apache and MySQl on first
I did, in fact, get the orange XAMPP admin page.

Thanks for your help. I'll take the issue up with the WordPress people.
Have a happy Christmas
Shân