Apache Friends Support Forum

Hi all I want to do is this, its very simple.
What I want is to create a virtual host on 127.0.0.1.
I want to host some files there, so that a program I am testing will get diverted from the domain its supposed to go to on the www which dont exist.
And go to 127.0.0.1 instead, by diverting the non existing domain in the hosts file to 127.0.0.1
There it will read the files like the www.
I have the files and folders already in C:\APACHE\xampp\htdocs\
But how do I make it read from there?
When I put http://127.0.0.1 into Firefox, I want it to come up with that directory and those files.
Currently when I point firefox to http://127.0.0.1 it says,

Access forbidden!
You don't have permission to access the requested directory. There is either no index document or the directory is read-protected.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.

Can someone please tell me, how to make the files show up on http://127.0.0.1?
Thankyou

I have the files and folders already in C:\APACHE\xampp\htdocs\

by any chance does that include a .htaccess file that is now in the root of htdcos?

BTW - I'd avoid saying 'virtual host' on this forum, as that refers to a specific type of Apache configuration 'vhosts or VirtualHost directives', and changes how Apache works, and what information is needed to determine what is wrong. If you DID configure Apache for vhosts, you should include the relevant vhosts sections from the Apache .conf file(s)