Instal Help,Xampp1.4.16,zen cart 1.3.8a

totally new to e-comm, I have XP windows, and yesterday i installed zen-cart 1.3.8a according to the "e-start Your web store " book step by step. I downloaded the Xampp 1.4.16 (25 mb) to a C:\zencart dir. I reached as far as page 35 , i.e opened the CONTROL XAMPP SERVER PANEL. The panel opned with only fillazilla running. The rest were not . I ticked the rest of the services, and clicked the respective start buttons. The response was-- they would not start and aseperate message would be read as "stated" server busy". So i un-installed everything and started again several times. Still same problem. I cannot progress further from here. Please help. Is Xampp 1.4.16 correct for zen cart 1.3.8a?

I have XAMPP 1.6.5 loaded and running with an install of ZC 1.3.8a
I also don't worry about testing email functions until I move the ZC install to its final server, so I don't bother with setting up the local domain. I just install ZC in a folder inside of the htdocs directory of the XAMPP install. Accessing the ZC with the browser then requires the url to look like "http://localhost/Zen_cart_install_directory"

Double-click the file "xampp-portcheck.exe" in your XAMPP directory and see if there are any ports being used by other programs if your servers refuse to start.

After that, disable those programs before re-starting those servers and see if things work properly.

when i type in http://localhost/ or http://localhost/Zencart or http://localhost/xampp all i get is not possible to connect.

yes you would not be able to connect if the server isn't starting in the first place. Canopy is correct that you need to do a port check to see if anything is interfering.