mod_rewrite is an Apache web server module which is used to rewrite a URL at the server level. This module has a variety of uses. But it is most frequently used to provide clean, search engine friendly URLs.

For example, if the original link is something like http://linuxandfriends.com/?q=wp ; Thanks to mod_rewrite, that link can be accessed by the end user and search engines as http://linuxandfriends.com/2008/12/wordpress/ which is a lot more friendlier.

Enabling mod_rewrite in XAMPP

XAMPP stands for Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl. This is a software bundle which allows developers to easily install the above mentioned four software on their machine and test their websites. Apache Friends – the creators of XAMPP have released it for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

XAMPP comes with mod_rewrite module disabled by default. The following are the steps required to enable mod_rewrite module so that your websites such as WordPress blog, Drupal or Joomla sites can display search engine friendly URLs.

1. Assuming you have unpacked the xampp folder in the C:\ directory, navigate to the folder containing the apache configuration files.  The full path is C:\xampp\apache\conf\.
2. In the conf folder, you will find a file named httpd.conf. This file holds all the configuration parameters for apache. Open the file  in a text editor.
3. Search for mod_rewrite.so and you will come across a line as follows : #LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
4. Uncomment the line by removing the hash (#) mark.
5. Save  the file and restart Apache web server.

Now you will find that your site (WordPress, Drupal,Joomla) is able to use search engine friendly URLs.