Mail in PHP with XAMPP on localhost (windows)

Hi,

I am trying to set up mailing using php on my localhost.  
I am not really quite aware what my options are, but a quick search found me sendmail.exe (which hasnt been updated for years, but is included with XAMPP)

Currently, this is what I have :


text.php :

    $to      = 'aaa@gmail.com';
    $subject = 'About localhost';
    $message.="Please...let this work";
    $headers = 'From: xxx@gmail.com' . "\r\n" .
        'Reply-To: xxx@gmail.com' . "\r\n";
    $headers.= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
    $headers.= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1\r\n";
    $headers.= 'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
    try {
        mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
        echo("hihihihihihi");
    }
    catch (mysqli_sql_exception $e){
        echo ("hahahahahaha");
        echo "well this didnt work out" . $e;
    }

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php.ini :

SMTP = smtp.gmail.com
smtp_port = 465
sendmail_path = "\"C:\xampp\sendmail\sendmail.exe\" -t"
mail.add_x_header=Off

sendmail.ini :

smtp_server=smtp.gmail.com
smtp_port=465
smtp_ssl=ssl
error_logfile=error.log
debug_logfile=debug.log
auth_username=xxx@gmail.com
auth_password=xxx
pop3_server=
pop3_username=
pop3_password=
force_sender=xxx@gmail.com
force_recipient=
hostname=smtp.gmail.com


I have also modified the properties of sendmail.exe so that it is running under administrative mode, with compatibility setting for windows xp sp 3

The result I am getting on the page is as follows

UAC opens up, requesting permission to run sendmail.exe
once I give the permission, sendmail.exe opens up a blank command prompt window
The website keeps loading, waiting for some sort of response from sendmail.exe.

Then nothing happens. The sendmail.exe command prompt never changes.

Any suggestions?
Or maybe a different solution to sendmail?

Thank you