How do I rename a file to .htaccess in Windows 7?

Question

I'm using XAMPP to test a PHP script. Now, in the root of the folder I want to place a .htaccess file according to the requirements of the script.

But Windows won't let me rename it to .htaccess. Is there any way to go around it?

I'm using Windows 7 RTM.

Solution 1

this link discusses the same problem on XP.

I'll let you read it and decide if it applies to Windows 7, but the solution involves using a command line.

EDIT:

It starts from the fact that Windows will let you create an htaccess.txt file
Then

Start Run > cmd

then type

rename c:\pathtoyourhtaccessfile\htaccess.txt .htaccess

will do the trick

Solution 2

Thanks to https://serverfault.com/questions/22626/rename-files-to-empty-filename-in-windows-vista I learned a new trick. Since this page shows up in Google higher for that error message, I thought I'd link it here too.

Essentially if you want to do it in Explorer, name it .htaccess. with a trailing dot. The trailing dot tells Windows what the extension should be, and the initial dot and letters tell it what the filename (without extension) should be. It appears that a file without an extension is permissible, but not one without a filename. Fortunately, a file without an extension requires no dot, so we get the deletion that creates the filename we wanted (which is just an extension - see the filetype that Windows reports?)

You can do this with any string, not just htaccess. It makes a little sense to me because files that start with a dot have special meaning.

Solution 3

Don't create the file in Windows Explorer. Create it in whatever program you are using (notepad, vim, eclipse whatever). Then select "Save As" and make sure "All Files" is selected. Type in .htaccess . It should work.

The All Files is to prevent the program automatically adding a file type extension (e.g. .htaccess.txt)

Solution 4

One thing you could do is use another file as the .htaccess file.

Open up the httpd.conf or whatever the XAMPP setup calls the Apache configuration file.

Look for the line that starts with AccessFileName and change the value at the end to something that Windows will allow you to save it as.

AccessFileName htaccess.txt

If you don't find that line, just add the above in.

Then restart your XAMPP.

You will have to remember to rename it when you upload to the live site though.

Solution 5

I think in the old Windows XP days it was sufficient to just quote the filename? Those quotes would then be removed by Windows. So, rename to save the file as:

".htaccess"

This surely only works when saving from, say, Notepad, and then also keeps the default .txt from being added. I am not 100% sure it also worked in Windows Explorer. In Windows XP, it does not work from Windows Explorer though, as one cannot even type quotes then. And without the quotes it would yield "You must type a file name." because it doesn't like the leading dot. The same errors when using the dialog as shown using right-click » Properties.)

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Comments

[Christoph Rüegg]

Maybe this answer took the "any way to go around it" too literally.

[Ahmad Alfy]

LOL that's another weird issue caused by Windows!

[Tim Pietzcker]

This is an exact duplicate of this answer from over a year ago.

[dman79]

"exact"? No. Anyway, I was lookinfor the answer to this problem and figured it out on my own. But since I had never seen anone say this before, I searched on here for this question, so I could make sure anyone else needing to know got the information. The accepted answer is a lesser answer, so I posted. Didn't notice the othere one. The asker should change the accepted answer to that one though, since it is a far better answer.

[etuardu]

is this a bug or a feature?

[dman79]

And you realize it confuses people if an answer is correct, but voted down. Now, while my answer is totally correct, others seeking this information may be mislead by the negative score.

[Tim Pietzcker]

FWIW, I didn't downvote this. But in my opinion, you should remove your answer because the other answer is much better: it doesn't just say "It's magic!" but explains why it works. And you were about a year late with yours.

[TrickyDBA]

The previous answer does not mention explicitly: that the trailing dot will disappear - that way this answer still holds its ground.

[jx12345]

it's a bug until someone finds a use for it then it's a feature... this is now officially a feature. :)

[Daniel Little]

Awesome, so you can just type .filename. and it becomes .filename

[Sachin Divakar]

THis answer should have been the accepted answer most straight forward

[krowe2]

IMHO, this is easily the best answer. Keep in mind that when you upload your site you're going to be on a different server anyway. Meaning that you're probably going to want to use a different configuration there anyway. Most of the time, you just leave these files untouched when you upload and make a separate set for your server. I'd suggest that, if you're developing on Win and uploading to Lin server, you change this setting on the server as well so that those can be edited in Win as well but give the server a different name (eg htaccess.dev.conf and htaccess.prod.conf would be good).

[krowe2]

One more thing to mention is that most http.conf files include a few lines to prevent downloading of these files... <Files ".ht*"> Require all denied </Files>...change this to <Files "ht*.*.conf"> Require all denied </Files> to keep these files unavailable for download (don't forget to put the missing newlines back in; this is a comment so I removed them).

[krowe2]

One more thing to mention is that, if you're using basic auth, you'll also want to use a similar naming scheme for your .htpasswd files so that they stay hidden as well.