XAMPP Do I Need it?

Is XAMPP just a test server? To test a site for shopping cart or whatever, I put the site on my personal one and test it there before it goes to the real site. This way I can send test orders, etc. I would rather not use XAMPP. Can't I just keep my website local files where they are and just change the order pages from htm to php w/out moving to XAMPP folder? If XAMPP is not necessary, I'd like to uninstall it.

Thx.

if the setup you are using with testing on your personal server, then no, xampp is not necessary.

it is only necessary if you do not have another testing environment, or using a remote server for testing does not allow Dreamweaver to create a mysql connection. Some MySQL servers are configured to not allow outside connections.