XAMPP, Apache - Error: Apache shutdown unexpectedly

As I am working in a corporate environment where developers faces firewall issues, none of the other answers resolved my issue.

As the port is not used by Skype, but by some other internal applications, I followed the below steps to resolve the issue:

Step 1 - From the XAMPP Control Panel, under Apache, click the Config button, and select the Apache (httpd.conf).

Inside the httpd.conf file, somehow I found a line that says:

Listen 80

And change the 80 into any number / port you want. In my scenario I’m using port 8080.

Listen 8080

Still from the httpd.conf file, I found another line that says:

ServerName localhost:80

Change 80 to 8080.

ServerName localhost:8080

Step 2 - From the XAMPP Control Panel, under Apache, click the Config button again, but this time select the Apache (httpd-ssl.conf). Inside the httpd-ssl.conf file, find line that says

Listen 443

And change the 443 into any number / port you want. I’ll using 4433 as the new port number.

Listen 4433

Still from the httpd-ssl.conf file, find another line that says

<VirtualHost _default_:443>

ServerName localhost:443

And change 443 to 4433.

<VirtualHost _default_:4433>

ServerName localhost:4433

Remember to save the httpd.conf and httpd-ssl.conf files after performing some changes. Then restart the Apache service.

Open Skype.

Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Connection.

Uncheck the "Use port 80 and 443 for alternatives for incoming connections" checkbox

Sign Out and Close all Skype windows. Try restarting your Apache.

One thing you can do is to stop the services on port 80 by issuing

net stop http

in a cmd. You'll be asked if you're sure you want to stop those services. I found out that I had a few services I wasn't using and disabled them.

To see who else is using port 80 type in a cmd

netstat -abno

I'm assuming you want to run Apache on port 80. If this is the case and you want to keep the conflicting services you will need to associate them to a new port.

If the problem is not a busy port you can also try the following: select "show debug information" in the XAMPP config panel. When starting Apache you'll be shown something like "Executing "c:\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.exe". If you run that

c:\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.exe

in a cmd you will get some more information (I once for instance had some issue with my httpd.conf file).

Related: How do I free my port 80 on localhost Windows? and Apache won't run in xampp