Thank you guys for all your advice. I found my answer on a forum for Apache Forum. Thread is here in case someone else has the same installation problems like me:
http://www.apachefriends.org/f/viewtopic.php?t=29581
Essentially, these are the steps I took before it started to run:
1. Disconnect from the network server
2. Disable AVGFree
3. Do what the lady at the forum said:
so here is a quick work around that may help you out... 1.. make sure that the services for all the apps are un-installed by de-selecting them using the controller. 2...rename your xampp folder to say xampp1 and run the setup.bat in the folder... this should trigger a screen with the 'do you want to do this' and tell it to go ahead... then try to run apache (without services) from the controller... let me know...
Apache then started for me and reinstalled for Windows NT!
Now everything runs!!
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