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 am having to reboot my computer in order to reboot the Apache server, which is of course quite time consuming.

I have googled and found the correct console commands to use to reboot Apache, but absolutely non of the references that I have found actually tell you where to type the relevant commands! A certain level of knowledge is assumed.

So my question is - where do I actually type apache -k restart?

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.