There is a lot of confusion on the support boards, people saying they can’t get Xampp to stop, there “must be a bug in Xampp”, or they “had to kill the application with Task Manager”. No, they are trying an incorrect method for closing a Windows Service.
Some versions of Windows (including Windows 7) prevent applications from starting or stopping services; you should use the Windows Services program to manage services.
In the “Xampp Control Panel Application”, you specify whether to run Apache and MySql as Windows Services (by checking the “Svc” box).
If Apache *is not* running as a Windows Service:
you use the Xampp Control Panel Application to stop and start Apache.
If Apache *is* running as a Windows Service:
you use Windows Services to restart Apache. (Start button, search for Services; or Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services). Click on the Apache service (the version of Apache you are running will be in the service name), then click “Restart the service”.
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