Setup Virtual Host on Windows & Ubuntu (Laragon/XAMPP/WAMP)

What is a Virtual Host?

A virtual host lets you access your project with a custom domain (like somefolder.test) instead of localhost/project-name. This makes local development cleaner and more professional.

Step 1: Edit Apache Virtual Hosts

Find and open the Apache httpd-vhosts.conf (or Laragon/WAMP sites config):

• Laragon → C:\laragon\etc\apache2\sites-enabled\00-default.conf
• XAMPP → C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf
• WAMP → C:\wamp64\bin\apache\apacheX.X.X\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf
• Ubuntu/Linux → /etc/apache2/sites-available/somefolder.conf

Add this block (adjust the path to your project folder):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName somefolder.test
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/somefolder"   # Windows example
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/somefolder">
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

For Ubuntu, the path will look like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName somefolder.test
    DocumentRoot /var/www/somefolder
    <Directory /var/www/somefolder>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Step 2: Update Hosts File

Tell your system to point somefolder.test to localhost.

• Windows → open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
• Ubuntu/Linux → edit /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 somefolder.test

Step 3: Enable & Restart Apache

• Windows (XAMPP/Laragon/WAMP): restart Apache from control panel.
• Ubuntu/Linux:

sudo a2ensite somefolder.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 4: Test It

Open your browser and visit:

http://somefolder.test

You should now see your Laravel (or any) project.

Multiple Projects?

No problem. Just repeat steps 1 & 2 with different names like:

127.0.0.1 searches.test
127.0.0.1 videos.test
127.0.0.1 somefolder.test

Each gets its own <VirtualHost> block pointing to its folder.

✅ That’s it! Now you can serve as many projects as you want with clean .test domains on both Windows and Ubuntu.