After installing XAMPP version 1.6.5, I received the following error message when trying to start Apache as a service.

apache.exe
The application failed to initialized properly (0xc0150002). Click OK to terminate this application.

wellcome to www.0058.net

The interim fix for this issue (and I suspect for some of the reported issues with Apache failing to initialize for Windows Server and XAMPP versions 1.6.4 and 1.6.3) is to download and install the following for Windows machines in English:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en [^]

Other languages are also available.

Perhaps a long-term fix is to recompile the Windows Binary distributable to include the C++ libraries so that they are distributed and installed as part of the XAMPP Windows binaries, or to provide additional instructions in the Readme file that instructs users to download and install the Windows Visual C++ Redistributable Package before installing XAMPP.