I personally dont like the xammp software and rather set up my own apache but there shouldn't be to many differences in setting up a project. I also like having alias's for my project's rather then accessing them trough "localhost" or a "ip". My config usually looks something like this:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName tutorial.local
ServerAlias tutorial.local
DocumentRoot c:/Apache24/htdocs/tutorial/public/
SetEnv APPLICATION_ENV "development"
<Directory c:/Apache24/htdocs/tutorial/public/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
After setting up the Virtual Host with the aliases you'll have to open your hosts file within FILESYSTEM:\windows\System32\drivers\etc\
and add a host.
localhost or IP tutorial.local
keep in mind that you'll have to open this file as a administrator and may disable your Antivirus/Spyblocker.