XAMPP Install - 404 Error When Trying to Login

I'm trying to learn Zen-Cart
Just downloaded and installed v1.3.9h locally.
I am using XAMPP on Windows7 (Has worked great for all my development work previously)
Made the "zencart/admin" directory writable.
Modified the configure.php file as directed (changing "admin", as indicated in the instructions, to "admin1" for the sake of testing) as follows:

define('DIR_WS_ADMIN', '/zencart/admin1/');

define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/zencart/');

define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_ADMIN', '/zencart/admin1/');

define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG', '/zencart/');

define('DIR_FS_ADMIN', 'C:/xampp/feralpots/zen_cart/zencart/admin1/');

define('DIR_FS_CATALOG', 'C:/xampp/feralpots/zen_cart/zencart/');

Saved the file.
Changed the "admin" directory name to "admin1".
Restarted my Apache server.
Even cleared the cache...

And get an "Object not found!"... "Error 404"...

I've gone through this twice from scratch with the same result.
What am I doing wrong ???

404 means "not found".

I might suggest you start over using the v1.5.0 beta, primarily because it requires only renaming the folder, not editing the file.

I'm a little reluctant to work with the beta because I'm prototyping a site that I will have to take live.

One thing I notice is that, when I get the 404 error, the URL reads: "http://zen_cart/zencart/admin/alert_page.php".

(zen_cart is the local domain I'm working in. "zencart" is the folder with the zen cart files.)

The directory "admin" no longer exists, and since I didn't request this URL (http://zen_cart/zencart/admin/alert_page.php) I have to assume that the URL I requested (http://zen_cart/zencart/admin1) was trapped by the server and redirected to this URL which generated a 404 because "admin" does not exist...

Although I'm not sure how or why. I don't see anything in .htaccess or index.php which would cause this redirection...

Any idea what would cause this ?

Sounds like your configure.php changes didn't "take". Remember, if the file is read-only, then anything you try to save to it won't save.

No - it took. I changed permissions to make it writable and after writing it, closed it and reopened it to make sure the changes were there.

Anything else you can think of ?

And - do you know of anyone who has ever gotten an XAMPP Zen Cart installation working ? Would be nice to know it's possible :)

feralreason:

Anything else you can think of ?Clearly it's looking for the wrong path. The only places it gets that are from the physical foldername and the text you've entered in the configure.php file.
feralreason:

And - do you know of anyone who has ever gotten an XAMPP Zen Cart installation working ? Would be nice to know it's possible :)
Lots of people do it every day, including myself.

OK - Thanks much for your help. I've been over every line several times so I think I'll just delete and reinstall to get a fresh start.

Thanks again.

Again, I suggest using the latest 1.5

DrByte:

Clearly it's looking for the wrong path. The only places it gets that are from the physical foldername and the text you've entered in the configure.php file.

You're dead right. I reinstalled and, in looking back through my editor history, I had somehow saved the modified configure.php to the "admin" folder instead of to the "admin/includes" folder.

Thanks for your help !