Basic Apache commands for a local Windows machine

Question

I have installed XAMPP on my Windows 7 machine and created a number of virtual servers. This part is straightforward enough.

Each time I add a new virtual server I a

Answer 1

Going back to absolute basics here. The answers on this page and a little googling have brought me to the following resolution to my issue. Steps to restart the apache service with Xampp installed:-

1. Click the start button and type CMD (if on Windows Vista or later and Apache is installed as a service make sure this is an elevated command prompt)
2. In the command window that appears type cd C:\xampp\apache\bin (the default installation path for Xampp)
3. Then type httpd -k restart

I hope that this is of use to others just starting out with running a local Apache server.

Answer 2

For frequent uses of this command I found it easy to add the location of C:\xampp\apache\bin to the PATH. Use whatever directory you have this installed in.

Then you can run from any directory in command line:

httpd -k restart

The answer above that suggests httpd -k -restart is actually a typo. You can see the commands by running httpd /?