Fixed: XAMPP Component Status Check failure [3].

I’m running XAMPP 1.7.4 [PHP: 5.3.5] (not as a service) on 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

I installed XAMPP to E:\xampp, and I have pinned the XAMPP Control Panel (xampp-control.exe) to the taskbar for easier access, but starting up xampp-control.exe from that shortcut throws an error:

XAMPP Control

XAMPP Component Status Check failure [3].

Current directory: E:\xampp

Run this program only from your XAMPP root directory.

[OK] [Cancel]

Strangely enough, I even get this error even when running xampp-control.exe from my XAMPP root directory, which really is E:\xampp.

The last post in the thread at http://www.apachefriends.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=44320&sid=a41029c6a36bbf5b3bb5817f37842340&start=60 offers a simple solution: change the Install_Dir value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to point to C:\xampp. According to the thread, the error message is due to a bug where the Install_Dir is checked against a hard-coded path on C:\. That may or may not be the case, but the suggested work-around seems to be effective.

Here’s a registry merge for Windows 7 64-bit that will make the change for you.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\xampp]
"Install_Dir"="C:\\xampp"

Now xampp-control.exe launches without the error, and I haven’t noticed anything (PHP, MySQL, etc.) not working because of the bogus path.

27 thoughts on “Fixed: XAMPP Component Status Check failure [3].”

  2. Kerlyk

    Nice! Just in case:

     "Install_Dir"="Path_TO_the_Installed_xampp"

    In current example (>”I installed XAMPP to E:xampp”) it must be like

    "Install_Dir"="E:\xampp"
  4. woolfie

    Just remove Key “Install_Dir” completely from Windows Registry [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\xampp] and Xampp Control will start without error message. Xampp Control then shows “No installer package found” in status window after start.

  8. Ant

    I got mine to work, but my Registry said the path was “C:\xampp” I changed it to “C:\\xampp” and it works now. I had to add a backslash for clarification.

  11. Pierre

    The path as a data type string in the registry is without double-quotes [ c:\xampp ]. The programming code reading this path see the backslash [ \ ]as an escape character and actually read only c: and does not know what the next character x means and what to do with it; thus the path is invalid. In Ant’s example above the double-backslash [ \\ ] means, use the next character after the first backslash as a backslash and therefor the string [/c] now makes sense in computer programming language. The alternative is to put double-quotes around the path string, “c:\xampp” which I did and it works as well – this is the preferred method and I think it was an oversight in the development of this version of xampp.

  12. wizzy

    I was installing xampp and got an error that apache could not be installed because port 80 and 443 were already in use,
    mysql failed to install because it was in use
    and also that filezilla failed because port 21 was already in use.
    Please, kindly help me out

  13. DaitoTsu

    I found simply adding the extra ‘\’ in the path of the Install_Dir registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\xampp] worked perfectly for path other than the C:

    Mine is “V:\\xampp” starting now without any errors, thanks for the help =)

  17. Ann

    I am having the exact problem but being completely new to this I don’t know how to change the Install_Dir value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to point to C:\xampp.
    Where do I add this code?

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\xampp]
"Install_Dir"="C:\\xampp"</code>

    Thank You in advance!

  19. Daniel

    Xampp was installed into c:\xampp, and the registry install_dir key was also set to c:\xampp.

    Adding an extra “\” (c:\xampp => c:\\xampp) directly in the registry seemed to correct the problem.

    @Ann: you have to run the windows registry editor “regedit”, then go through the keys as displayed in the code (HKLM > Software > Wow6432Node > xampp).

  20. Tara

    Worked great… I added the ” \\ ” and it understood to follow what was in the quotations. Thanks!

  21. Abbey

    This solution worked for me. My “Install_Dir” was “C:\xampp” but I changed it to “Install_Dir”=”C:\\xampp” it did not worked immediately but it worked after I restarted my computer. Thanks!

  25. Whitney

    Thanks for the solution! And Thanks Daniel for responding to Ann because I had the same question.

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