Month: August 2011

How to set up Apache on Windows

1. Download Apache

Go to this site-http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi

Select either

  • Win32 Binary without crypto (no mod_ssl) (MSI Installer): httpd-2.2.19-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi [PGP] [MD5] [SHA1]
  • Win32 Binary including OpenSSL 0.9.8r (MSI Installer): httpd-2.2.19-win32-x86-openssl-0.9.8r.msi [PGP] [MD5] [SHA1]

and download it

2. Install Apache from the installer
By default, Apache is installed here – C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2

3. Test it

Open a browser, and type – http://localhost

It should show the line – ‘It Works’

You are currently seeing contents of this file-

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs\index.html

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs is the document root directory for Apache

How to set up a different root directory for Apache

1. Create a new directory.

I have created a new folder under c drive called wwwroot

C:\wwwroot

Create an index.html  file under wwwroot. This is the contents of the index.html file

[sourcode]

<head>
<title>Apache Root</title>
</head>
<body>
TESTING APACHE NEW ROOT
</body>

[/sourcecode]

2. Change document root in httpd

Go here – C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf

and open this file – httpd

Change the following items there-

replace this line

DocumentRoot “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs”

with this-
DocumentRoot “C:/wwwroot”

Also replace this line

<Directory “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs”> 

with this –
<Directory “C:/wwwroot”>

3. Restart Apache

Go to Start -> Programs -> Apache HTTP Server 2.2 -> Control Apache Server -> Restart

4. Test it

Open a browser and type – http://localhost

It will show the new index.html page

TROUBLESHOOTING

************************

Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access on this server.

Make sure that both these lines point to the same document root

<Directory “C:/wwwroot”>

DocumentRoot “C:/wwwroot”

—————————————————————————————————

Apache fails to start

Make sure, both these lines are uncommented

<Directory “C:/wwwroot”>

DocumentRoot “C:/wwwroot”