Step 1: Download XAMPP and CakePHP . Step 2: Install Xampp Once you have installed Xampp (version 1.7.3) on your Windows with the default option, all your files will be located in the C:\xampp folder. Step 3: Mod Rewrite Module Once Xampp is installed as the local server, you can then proceed to enable mod_rewrite. To do so, you will have to open the httpd.conf file that is located in C:\xampp\apache\conf and uncomment by removing # from the following line: # LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so Step 4: Place CakePHP Files in a New Folder Extract the CakePHP (version 1.3.8) zip file and copy all its contents to your local web server, which in this instance is C:\xampp\htdocs\cakephp . I have decided to name the CakePHP folder as cakephp, and in it, you will find many files and folders for the framework, including app, cake, docs, vendors, .htaccess, and index.php. Step 5: Set Up Virtual Host Open the httpd-vhosts.conf file from the C:\xampp\apa