I get Access Forbidden (Error 403) when setting up new alias

I just found the same issue with Aliases on a Windows install of Xampp.

To solve the 403 error:

<Directory "C:/Your/Directory/With/No/Trailing/Slash">
   Require all granted
</Directory>

Alias /dev "C:/Your/Directory/With/No/Trailing/Slash"

The default Xampp set up should be fine with just this. Some people have experienced issues with a deny placed on the root directory so flipping out the directory tag to:

<Directory "C:/Your/Directory/With/No/Trailing/Slash">
   Allow from all
   Require all granted
</Directory>

Would help with this but the current version of Xampp (v1.8.1 at the time of writing) doesn't require it.

As for op's issue with port 80 Xampp includes a handy Netstat button to discover what's using your ports. Fire that off and fix the conflict, I imagine it could have been IIS but can't be sure.


I'm using XAMPP with Apache2.4, I had this same issue. I wanted to leave the default xampp/htdocs folder in place, be able to access it from locahost and have a Virtual Host to point to my dev area...

The full contents of my C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\http-vhosts.conf file is below...

# Virtual Hosts
#
# Required modules: mod_log_config

# If you want to maintain multiple domains/hostnames on your
# machine you can setup VirtualHost containers for them. Most configurations
# use only name-based virtual hosts so the server doesn't need to worry about
# IP addresses. This is indicated by the asterisks in the directives below.
#
# Please see the documentation at 
# <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/>
# for further details before you try to setup virtual hosts.
#
# You may use the command line option '-S' to verify your virtual host
# configuration.

#
# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#

##NameVirtualHost *:80

#
# VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for all requests that do not
# match a ##ServerName or ##ServerAlias in any <VirtualHost> block.
#
##<VirtualHost *:80>
    ##ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ##DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/dummy-host.example.com"
    ##ServerName dummy-host.example.com
    ##ServerAlias www.dummy-host.example.com
    ##ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-error.log"
    ##CustomLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-access.log" common
##</VirtualHost>

##<VirtualHost *:80>
    ##ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ##DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/dummy-host2.example.com"
    ##ServerName dummy-host2.example.com
    ##ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host2.example.com-error.log"
    ##CustomLog "logs/dummy-host2.example.com-access.log" common
##</VirtualHost>


<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:\xampp\htdocs"
    ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>


<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:\nick\static"
    ServerName dev.middleweek.co.uk
    <Directory "C:\nick\static">
        Allow from all
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

I then updated my C:\windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file like this...

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
#   127.0.0.1       localhost
#   ::1             localhost

127.0.0.1   dev.middleweek.co.uk
127.0.0.1       localhost

Restart your machine for good measure, open the XAMPP Control Panel and start Apache.

Now open your custom domain in your browser, in the above example, it'll be http://dev.middleweek.co.uk

Hope that helps someone!

And if you want to be able to view directory listings under your new Virtual host, then edit your VirtualHost block in C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\http-vhosts.conf to include "Options Indexes" like this...

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:\nick\static"
    ServerName dev.middleweek.co.uk
    <Directory "C:\nick\static">
        Allow from all
        Require all granted
        Options Indexes
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Cheers, Nick

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