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Apache Virtual Host on Windows XP

I wanted to set up some virtual hosts in my local environment. I found this very helpful page. Here is the lesson in a nutshell.

Assuming Apache 2.2 is installed in the default location open the following file:

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\httpd.conf

Find the lines that read:

# Virtual hosts
#Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

and remove the comment (#) so that it looks like this:

# Virtual hosts
Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

This enables virtual hosting in Apache. Note that it also shuts down the default host.

Open the following Windows file:

c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

You should see something like the following:

127.0.0.1       localhost

Duplicate the line (keep the same IP number) and name a new host, for instance recipemanager and save the file.

Open the following file (this is the file you just enabled in Apache:

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf

Added the following:

<Directory c:/vhosts>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order Deny,Allow
Allow from all
</Directory>

This propagates the permissions you set in the directive to cascade to all foldes in c:/vhosts which means you can set up all your virtual servers under c:/vhosts.

Because the default localhost is disabled you need to create that like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot c:/htdocs
ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

This points localhost at c:/htdocs

Then you can create your recipemanager host:

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot c:/vhosts/recipemanager/site
ServerName recipemanager
</VirtualHost>

Reboot Apache. Place a test file in c:/vhosts/recipemanager/site

Navigate with your browser to http://recipemanager/<TESTFILENAME>

And you should see the rendered file.