Run XAMPP At Startup

The following works for Windows 8:

First, set XAMPP controller to run at windows startup

1. Right click Windows icon, select RUN
2. In the Open input box, type in shell:startup, click OK
3. Right click on the starup window. Select New->shortcut.  Enter path to xampp controller application.  In my case it is C:\xampp\xampp-control.exe
4. Save everything.  This will start the xampp-control panel at startup

 

Second, configure Apache to start automatically

1. Click config button at the upper right hand corner of xampp control panel
2. Select autostart modules.  It could be a combination of Apache, FileZilla, Tomcat, MySQL, and Mercury
3. Save everything

 

Third, configure firewall to enable XAMPP working over LAN