Activating .htaccess on XAMPP (Illustrated Guide)

Activating .htaccess on XAMPP (Illustrated Guide)#

While working on localhost, the .htaccess file provides great convenience in many matters such as SEO settings, hotlink prevention, custom error pages, and traffic control.
In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to activate the .htaccess file using XAMPP.

1️⃣ Enabling the Apache Mod Rewrite Module#

1. Open the XAMPP Control Panel.
2. Click the Config button located to the right of the Apache line.
3. Select the httpd.conf file from the opening menu.

🧩 Then find the following line:

#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Remove the # (hash) sign at the beginning:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

This process allows URL redirection and rewriting operations to work.

2️⃣ Changing the AllowOverride Setting#

Find the following lines in the same file:

AllowOverride None

and change them as follows:

AllowOverride All

This change allows the .htaccess file to work actively.

3️⃣ Restart Apache and MySQL Services#

For the changes you made to take effect: Return to the XAMPP panel and restart Apache and MySQL services by clicking Stop → Start.

4️⃣ Sample .htaccess File#

Now your .htaccess file is active! To try it, create a .htaccess file in the root directory and add the following code:

# Activates redirections
RewriteEngine On

# Example: redirect non-www to www
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301]

🧠 Additional Information#

• The .htaccess file works on Apache servers.
• The filename must start with a dot (.) and must not have a file extension.
• After editing the file, don't forget to clear the browser cache.

Good luck 😉 Now your .htaccess file is working with full functionality on XAMPP.