This is follow-up to a previous post that can be found at https://community.apachefriends.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=82729.
First and simplest is that as a result of this experience and desire to use rather than troubleshoot XAMPP I reverted to running (trying) it on a Windows 7 computer. So far after a fair amount of usage this problem has NOT occurred on Windows 7. To be fair I have NOT done much switching between different version of XAMPP and would NOT bet a lot of money that the problem will NOT occur on Windows 7 with these more current versions of XAMPP.
The referenced topic suggests that running MySQL as a Windows Service is an effective way to prevent this problem from occurring. I have now looked further into that idea and have learned that it appears as though Windows 10 does NOT intend to allow users to run such programs as a service. In fact, from what I've seen so far it is necessary to install other third party software in order to facilitate such. What have I failed to figure out?
I've also now looked closer at the batch files (mysql_start.bat & mysql_stop.bat) supplied with XAMPP that, I think are for starting and stopping XAMPP.
With respect to "mysql_start.bat" the operative command seems to be as follows:
mysql\bin\mysqld --defaults-file=mysql\bin\my.ini --standalone
This caused me to take a look at the contents of "my.ini" which turned out to be quite brief as follows:
[mysqld]
datadir=c:/xampp/mysql/data
[client]
This is surprising insofar as with my setup there is NO SUCH THING as a directory with location of "c:/xampp/mysql/data". It would be pretty simple to correct this obvious defect however it does NOT appear to be relevant. My Windows 7 Systems that are, for now, working fine contain this same defect.
With respect to "mysql_stop.bat" there exists a line as follows:
cmd.exe /C start "" /MIN call "@@BITROCK_INSTALLDIR@@\killprocess.bat" "mysqld.exe"
A file named "killprocess.bat" is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND anywhere within the "xampp" directory structure.
These findings DO NOT instill much confidence in the idea that using said batch files, rather than the Control Panel for starting and stopping "mysqld.exe" offer a better alternative.
This is turning out to be one more of many reasons why I've chosen to keep using Windows 7 as long as possible. I'd like to make some productive use of my Windows 10 computer but at present it is NOT about to function as a testing server. Thankfully it does still work as a client which is a necessary component.