Dreamweaver F12 Preview in Browser with XAMPP Virtualhosts

CONFIGURED:
Windows XP Pro
Windows Explorer 8
FireFox
Dreamweaver CS3
Installed: XAMPP Windows 1.8.1
Apache 2.4.7
PHP 5.4.7

I have tried to modify the appropriate files to utilize virtual localhosts from my test server. With Apache started (running) the following pages display in browser when URL is typed in to the address bar of the internet browser (Internet Explorer or FireFox).:

http://localhost/xampp/ -displays Xampp Configuration Window
http://localhost/xampp/yourdomainname/ -displays home index.html page

From the home page displayed in the browser, I can navigate through the localhost website: html, php, and txt pages. No Favicon displayed.

PROBLEM
However, from within Dreamweaver with webpage open, I cannot successfully Preview the page in the web browser (Internet Explorer or FireFox). The following message appears:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

The browser address bar displays: http://loalhost/yourdomainname/testpage.php
I tried turning off the antivirus and firewall protection but this did not seem to help. This would indicate to me that some setting in the browser may be blocking displaying the page.

The Webassist tutorials are clear to install Xampp. But support documents and internet examples that I have read but do not go into detail about configurations or are conflicting.

Should the Preview from Dreamweaver work? Or is this to be expected? What configuration changes do I need to try?