XAMPP only loads one of my pages - html

Question

When I access my website using localhost/myfiles/index.html, my index file opens fine but if I want to click on the other pages/buttons, it doesn't work. The only way to open the other pages is if I do it manually by using localhost/myfiles/news.html and then only that pages works so I can't basically navigate my way around the website.
I had my website online yesterday and I know it works because I used it. I plan on making changes to my website and I need to be able to test them offline before I upload them to my online server. I just want to be able to navigate my site offline using XAMPP the same way that I would if it was uploaded on GoDaddy.
EDIT:
This is my .htaccess file
RewriteBase /
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.html -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.html
Any suggestions ?

Answer 1

Seems you have .htaccess at your root and its not working properly.
in httpd-vhosts.conf
<Directory "PATH TO YOUR PROJECT ROOT">
Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
Or update your .htaccess file
Without seeing your system it's hard to tell what's wrong but try the following (comment answer if these didn't work WITH log error messages)
[STOP your Apache server instance. Ensure it's not running!]
1) move apache server/install to a folder that has no long file names and spaces
2) check httpd.conf in install\conf folder and look for AccessFileName. If it's .htaccess change it to a file name windows accepts (e.g. conf.htaccess)
3) double-check that your htaccess file gets read: add some uninterpretable garbage to it and start server: you should get an Error 500. If you don't, file is not getting read, re-visit httpd.conf file (if that looks OK, check if this is the only file which defines htaccess and it's location and it does at one place -within the file- only; also check if both httpd.conf and htaccess files are accessible: not encrypted, file access rights are not limited, drive/path available -and no long folder path and file names-)
STOP Apache again, then go on:
4) If you have IIS too on your system, stop it (uninstall it too if you can) from services.msc
5) Add the following to the top of your valid htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteLog "/path/logs/rewrite.log" #make sure path is there!
RewriteLogLevel 9
6) Empty your [apache]\logs folder (if you use another folder, then that one :)
7) Check the following entries are set and correct:
Action application/x-httpd-php "c:/your-php5-path/php-cgi.exe"
LoadModule php5_module "c:/your-php5-path/php5apache2.dll"
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
Avoid long path names and spaces in folder names for phpX install too!
8) START apache server
You can do all the steps above or go one-by-one, your call. But at the end of the day make sure you tried everything above!
If system still blows up and you can't fix it, copy&paste error message(s) from log folder for further assistance