Set up multiple hosts (virtual hosts) in XAMPP on Windows

Step 1: Open the httpd-vhosts.conf File

1. Navigate to the XAMPP installation directory (usually C:/xampp).
2. Go to the apache/conf/extra/ folder.
3. Open the file named httpd-vhosts.conf in a text editor (e.g., Notepad++).

Step 2: Edit httpd-vhosts.conf

At the end of the file, you can define multiple virtual hosts.

Here is an example configuration for two different hosts:

# Virtual Host for Project 1
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/project1"
    ServerName project1.local
    ErrorLog "logs/project1-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/project1-access.log" common
</VirtualHost>

# Virtual Host for Project 2
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/project2"
    ServerName project2.local
    ErrorLog "logs/project2-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/project2-access.log" common
</VirtualHost>

• ServerName: The domain you want to use for your project (e.g., project1.local).
• DocumentRoot: The folder where your project is located (e.g., C:/xampp/htdocs/project1).

You can define as many virtual hosts as you want using the same structure.

Step 3: Edit hosts File

To map the custom domain (like project1.local) to localhost, you need to update the hosts file.

1. Navigate to C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/.
2. Open the hosts file in a text editor (run as administrator).
3. Add the following lines at the end of the file:

127.0.0.1 project1.local
127.0.0.1 project2.local

This maps project1.local and project2.local to localhost.

Step 4: Restart Apache

After making these changes, restart Apache from the XAMPP Control Panel.

Step 5: Access Your Projects

Now you should be able to access your projects in the browser by typing:

• http://project1.local for Project 1
• http://project2.local for Project 2

Optional: Make the Public Folder Main URL

If your project structure requires that the public folder be the main entry point (like Laravel or your /mvc-app/ project), update the DocumentRoot in the virtual host configuration to point to the public folder:

DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/project1/public"

Now, when you access http://project1.local, it will load from the public directory directly.