using xampp going to localhost or custom url redirects to xampp dashboard

hey so im on windows trying to setup my my laravel 8 site with xampp and want to use the url tpapp.dev instead of localhost to access it.

my hosts file has this:

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 tpapp.dev

and my vhosts has this:

NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot "D:/xampp/htdocs"
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost tpapp.dev>
    DocumentRoot "D:/projects/tpapp/public"
    ServerName tpapp.dev
    ServerAlias tpapp.dev
    ErrorLog "logs/laravel.log"
    CustomLog "logs/custom.laravel.log" combined
    <Directory "D:/projects/tpapp/public">
        AllowOverride All
        Order Allow,Deny
        Allow from all
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

ive looked at this stuff

laracasts.com/discuss/channels/general-discussion/localhost-takes-me-to-xampp-dashboard

laracasts.com/discuss/channels/laravel/keeps-going-to-httplocalhostdashboard

stackoverflow.com/questions/19118349/setting-up-laravel-redirects-to-xampp

stackoverflow.com/questions/10272531/configuring-virtual-host-and-localhost-redirecting-to-the-xampp-folder

and none of it has seemed to work

in vhosts ive had <VirtualHost *:80> before and that was the same

ive looked in httpd.conf to make sure its not commented

the laravel project has only just been created so routes and stuff shouldnt be affecting it

the project is in a different directory but even if i move it back to htdocs and change vhosts nothing changes

im lost here this is beyond me