Installing Apache/XAMPP on a Win XP (Home Edition) machine

I installed XAMPP and Apache did not start, saying that port 80 is used by some other application. I went to /apache/conf/httppd.conf and changed there 80 to 8080, then Apache showed me the same error message for the port 443 (SSL). I changed 443 to 4433 and Apache started OK now, with http:8080 and HTTPS: 4433. It worked but is was quite inconvenient.

Also, I was not sure how easy it will be to configure other applications using these ports, e.g. Eclipse. Even XAMPP management UI did not show Apache configuration while Apache runs on 8080 (definitely it is configurable somewhere in XAMPP too...)

I run 'netstat' in a cmd window, but it showed me nothing - according to 'netstat' nobody uses 80 and 443 on my machine. So after some Internet search I found that actually Skype uses these two ports as an alternative way to receive messages Look in Skype at Tools->Options->Advanced Settings->Connections. There is a check button "Use ports 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections". If checked (default), Skype will use 80 and 443 ports!

I unchecked the button and changed back ports in Apache .conf files and Apache runs OK now.