I have recently upgraded to Windows 8 and installed XAMPP 1.8.1. On trying to start Apache using XAMPP Controller, I kept getting an error message saying that Apache could not be started because port 80 (the default port for Apache) was “in use by system”.
After a bit of searching around, one common solution, and the one that worked for me, was to turn off the “World Wide Web Publishing Service”, as follows:
- Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
- Find “World Wide Web Publishing Service”
- Right click and select “Stop”
- Right click and select “Properties”, then change “Startup type” to “Manual”
If this doesn’t fix it, you can find out what is using port 80 as follows:
- In a Command Prompt, run ‘netstat -ao > netstat.txt’ to write active connections and associated process IDs (PID) to a file (for me, there were too many to just view them in the command prompt)
- Find the PID that is listening on port 80 (0.0.0.0:80) – for me, the PID was 4, which seems quite common
- Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), right click on the column headers, and then click PID to show the PID column. Sort by PID to find the process for the PID that you identified above.
Once you know the process that is causing the problem, a bit of Googling (other search providers are available) should help you fix it.
thanks i stopped world wide web p…… Now click the apache service start button now its working.
thanks guys.
thank you so much!!! it really works.. . after letting the world wide web stoped. the apache in my xampp did worked 🙂
i owe you mr. johnm 😉
Woo, thanks, that work for me, I bit frustrated about Windows 8 that don’t allow my Xampp working, thank 😀
Thank You Very Much,its working
I’m in the services menu, but where is the “world wide web publishing services”? I can’t find it.
That worked as champ!!
Thanks!
Thank you! It works
Yup, spot on mate. Thanks 😉
Thank u so much . . .this problem has been nabbing me for quite a long time. . . .
Now i am happy !!!
Thanks a looot man !!
this method is working
Thank you
I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks. it worked 🙂 was bugged by it for a long time!
Thanks, you made my day
THANK U
😀
Actually I don;t have such a thing in my services 🙁 It’s weird but what should I do ????
Hi Sahel, I can’t help I’m afraid. In my experience, it has only been the “World Wide Web Publishing Service” that causes a problem, but there may be another service that is interfering. Good luck! Jon
And also my netstat command doesn’t work 😐
GR8 Its working
thanks alot..
i got it…………God bless Bro………….
Thanks so much…..continue ur services……………………………
It realllyyyy works
That was really helpful. Thank you.
its not working. I am not seeing WORLD WIDE WEB PUBLISHING SERVICE. is there anyway???
port 80 of my system is in use of SYSTEM.
The mysterious depths of Windows 8! If your Apache web server won’t start when it is set to listen on port 80 it is because IIS (Internet Information Server) is already using that port by default. However, IIS isn’t mentioned in Windows 8 services because now it’s called World Wide Web Publishing Service. If you click on Services in Apache Service Monitor you will bring up the list of Windows services referenced above (up there it says find Administrative Tools – but – guess what – that is hard to find in the new layout of Control Panel under Windows 8 ….
Anyway, thanks for the tip. It worked for me too and I can dispense with finding localhost using localhost:8080, which was a chore…
This really helped solve my issue starting up Xampp. Thanks
It is really helpful thank you somuch:)