XAMPP Virtual Host

This is almost a tutorial for myself, because on and off for the last few month I’ve been trying to get a Virtual Host set up on my local Windows 7 machine. Currently I am using XAMPP to run Apache and MySql, but it requires all local hosted directories to run under the “localhost” site, for example: http://localhost/demo or http://localhost/clientdomain.

Really there is nothing wrong with the above, but I’ve got a few WordPress multisite installs running that mimic live sites that use wildcard DNS with sub-domains. So dealing with a local sub-directories becomes hard to test and build when the live site is running sub-domains.

So, this post will cover how I got sub-directory multisite installs working in Windows with XAMPP. I’ll also list some great posts which help me get to my final goal.

The Steps

1. First I am going to assume you’re using a Windows machine and have XAMPP installed.
2. Open the XAMPP control panel application and stop Apache. Be aware that late Windows machines might run it as a service, so check the box to the left of the Apache module.
3. Navigate to C:/xampp/apache/conf/extra or wherever your XAMPP files are located.
4. Open the file named httpd-vhosts.conf with a text editor.
5. Around line 19 find # NameVirtualHost *:80 and uncomment or remove the hash.
6. At the very bottom of the file paste the following code:

   <VirtualHost *>
       ServerAdmin admin@localhost.com
       DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs" # change this line with your htdocs folder
       ServerName localhost
       ServerAlias localhost
       <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs">
           Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
           Order allow,deny
           Allow from all
       </Directory>
   </VirtualHost>
   
   

   With out that line of code you will lose access to your default htdocs directory. IE.http://localhost/ will be inaccessible.
7. Now you can copy and paste the code above below to add your Virtual Host directories. For example I’m working on a site called Eatery Engine so the following snippet will allow me to work with sub-domains on my local install:

   <VirtualHost myexample.dev>
       ServerAdmin admin@localhost.com
       DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/myexample" # change this line with your htdocs folder
       ServerName myexample.dev
       ServerAlias myexample.dev
       <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/myexample">
           Order allow,deny
           Allow from all
       </Directory>
   </VirtualHost>
   
   

   Notes:
   • change <VirtualHost myexample.dev> to something like <VirtualHostwordpress.dev> or <VirtualHost wordpress.loc>.
   • Be sure to change your ServerName and ServerAlias with the same as above.

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8. Next head over to your Windows host file to edit your HOSTS. the file will be located atC:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts, where hosts is the file. Open it with notepad.
9. Look for

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

   and add the following just after that line:

   # localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
    127.0.0.1       localhost
    127.0.0.1       myexample.dev #change to match your Virtual Host.
    127.0.0.1       demo.myexample.dev #manually add new sub-domains.
   

10. Restart Apache and test everything.

Final notes

Be sure to do a fresh install for any WordPress Multisite installs that may require sub-domains.