PHP & MySQL® Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies®

5.3. Using the XAMPP Control Panel

XAMPP provides a Control Panel for efficient management of the software in the XAMPP package. You can use the Control Panel to determine whether Apache and MySQL are currently running and to start or stop them. Before you can use your development environment, Apache and MySQL must be running. This section tells you how to use the Control Panel to start and stop Apache and MySQL.

The XAMPP Control Panel can run continuously, ready for you to use at all times. When the Control Panel is running, you see an orange icon in the system tray at the bottom right of your computer screen, as shown in Figure 5-5.

Figure 5-5. The XAMPP Control Panel icon.

If the XAMPP icon is in your system tray, you can click it to open the Control Panel. If you don't have the icon in your system tray, you can open the Control Panel by choosing StartAll ProgramsApache FriendsXAMPPXAMPP Control Panel. If you attempt to open the Control Panel when it's already running, an error message ...