how can i access apache... im so lost when it comes to that; im a php developer and to test code on my local machine i use firepages program; any recommended tutorial i can look at?
What is it that you want to do or learn?
well... at my old job my boss was using apache with some sort of interface; i just want to know some of the commands and how to access that interface
The interface (assuming you mean GUI) you refer to was probably some kind of standalone software he probably purchased from some company. Was it one of these?
http://gui.apache.org/
All they are really doing is just creating a graphical interface for making changes to apache configuration files which you can just open in any text editor and change yourself. I'm sure they probably come with some other bells and whistles though.
It seems that you would probably want to learn more about how to configure apache as those GUI's won't do you much good if you don't know what each setting is for anyways.
As for tutorials on configuation and getting started with Apache they have tutorials at Apache's website:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/tutorials.html
and since you are using windows I assume then here is a section dedicated to windows: