trouble setting up ldomain on local machine

hi everyone

my first post here! :) I'm attempting to work my way through the book "e start your web store with zen cart" but having a few teething problems! I've installed XAMPP on my machine, but having difficulty with creating a local domain. I've tried to edit the hosts vile with Adobe Dreamweaver, changing:

127.0.0.1 https://www.example.com #For browser access
127.0.0.1 mail.example.com #for email access
127.0.0.1 example.com #For mercury mail server

I removed the

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost

(not sure if i was meant to or not) but when I save it it says access to that folder is denied.

I'm using Vista, I've tried to search the forum, wiki and online but at a bit of a loss. Do I need to follow this step?

Any help would be appreciated! :)

XAMP and/or WAMP are not designed to be web servers so no domain name is required

They are development platforms for any any apache, mysql, php application(AMP)

Avoid using Dreamweaver to edit the hosts file. Instead, use Windows Notepad (or a text editor recommended in the appendix of the book) to edit the hosts file.

If you are on Windows Vista, you will need to edit the hosts file as an administrator. Instructions for doing so with Windows Notepad can be found here.

In addition, you should leave the "127.0.0.1 localhost" line in there.

Finally, try restarting your Windows PC if you encounter problems changing the hosts file.