Adding VirtualHost fails: Access Forbidden Error 403 (XAMPP) (Windows 7)

I've got a XAMPP installation running on Windows 7.

As soon as I add a VirtualHost to httpd-vhosts.conf, BOTH the 'regular' http://localhost AND the new dropbox.local aren't working.

This is what I added to my httpd-vhosts.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "E:/Documenten/Dropbox/Dropbox/dummy-htdocs"
    ServerName dropbox.local
    ServerAlias www.dropbox.local
    ErrorLog "logs/dropbox.local-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/dropbox.local-access.log" combined
</VirtualHost>

So I looked up my dropbox.local-error.log for any information:

[Thu Feb 02 10:41:57 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] client denied by server configuration: E:/Documenten/Dropbox/Dropbox/dummy-htdocs/

This error seems to be solved by adding

<directory "E:/Documenten/Dropbox/Dropbox/dummy-htdocs">
     Allow from all
</directory>

But now I get this error in dropbox.local-error.log:

[Thu Feb 02 10:45:56 2012] [error] [client ::1] Directory index forbidden by Options directive: E:/Documenten/Dropbox/Dropbox/dummy-htdocs/

Furthermore when I try to access http://localhost, I dont get any error in the regular error.log, although I get the error 403 when I try to access it.

Can anybody help... It's driving me mad :S

EDIT: Also in httpd.conf there is the following (I've seen it mentioned multiple times, so before anyone says it):

<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.php index.pl index.cgi index.asp index.shtml index.html index.htm \
                   default.php default.pl default.cgi default.asp default.shtml default.html default.htm \
                   home.php home.pl home.cgi home.asp home.shtml home.html home.htm
</IfModule>

Okay: This is what I did now and it's solved:

My httpd-vhosts.conf looks like this now:

<VirtualHost dropbox.local:80>
    DocumentRoot "E:/Documenten/Dropbox/Dropbox/dummy-htdocs"
    ServerName dropbox.local
    ErrorLog "logs/dropbox.local-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/dropbox.local-access.log" combined
    <Directory "E:/Documenten/Dropbox/Dropbox/dummy-htdocs">
        # AllowOverride All      # Deprecated
        # Order Allow,Deny       # Deprecated
        # Allow from all         # Deprecated

        # --New way of doing it
        Require all granted    
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

First, I saw that it's necessary to have set the <Directory xx:xx> options. So I put the <Directory > [..] </Directory>-part INSIDE the <VirtualHost > [..] </VirtualHost>. After that, I added AllowOverride AuthConfig Indexes to the <Directory> options.

Now http://localhost also points to the dropbox-virtualhost. So I added dropbox.local to <VirtualHost *:80> which makes it as <VirtualHost dropbox.local:80>

FINALLY it works :D!

I'm a happy man! :) :)

I hope someone else can use this information.


For me worked when I changed "directory" content into this:

<Directory  "*YourLocation*">
Options All
AllowOverride All
Require all granted  
</Directory>

For me (also XAMPP on Windows 7), this is what worked:

<Directory "C:\projects\myfolder\htdocs">`
   AllowOverride All
   Require all granted
   Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
</Directory>` 

It is this line that would cause the 403:

Order allow,deny