Apache Configuration Guide for Windows

Apache is a world class web server that can run on most personal computers on several operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Macintosh OSX. Linux is the most robust and secure operating system for Apache and has become the industry standard web server for very large and very busy commercial web sites as well as being used by scores of web hosting providers.

Download Windows Apache 2.0 Installation Guide PDF

Download Windows Apache 2.0 Installation Guide EPUB

Download Windows Apache 2.0 Installation Guide MOBI

Apache can be installed on a standard personal computer and provides a great web server on a standard Windows machine. This document and the associated configuration file allows you to instantly create a simple, useful, and secure web server installation on your Windows PC with the minimum of fuss and bother.

Our guide provides the basic information you need to know to understand your server configuration. Please consult the on-line apache documentation at http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/ for further information.

There are now several WAMP installations for windows which automate the process described in our configuration guide and you may like to search and look at these. Our configuration guide is free to download and read and we are now focussing our development effort on Microsoft ASP.NET.

The redware configuration of Apache 2.0.x has the following features:

• The configuration and log files are maintained in the default sub-folders of the Apache installation.
• Web content and security configuration is placed in a convenient folder for regular backup.
• A separate user folder allows easy management of individual user or departmental web content.
• A private folder allows username and password access to confidential web pages.
• PHP and MySQL installation notes allow LAMP (or WAMP) applications to be installed easily.
• Default security settings are specified to provide a reasonable level of security.

Compilation of Apache from source code is not covered and consequently you will have problems setting up SSL security on your Windows web server as Apache exclude the relevant program from the Windows binary distribution. PHP and MySQL installation is briefly covered so that you can easily install web applications that conform to the LAMP standard. However be warned that the PHP people warn that Apache 2.0 is not suitable for a production server and you should consider Apache 1.3.x on Linux.

Please contact us if you would like to help us improve and maintain this Guide.