JohnRostron wrote:As I explained, this drive letter worked fine on the earlier version of Xampp/Apache.
I know, but a letter is only a letter. It depends. whether it is a Partition (what you did not specify) or if it is a Network Node. Both can be E:, it even could be a Partition on your old environment and a NAS in your new environment - we do not know that, as you did not specify. Therefore i asked.
Anyway, a 403-Error is NOT a misconfiguration from Apache (like a missing Require clause or similar), it means instead, that Apache (which is run by a certain User, this depends on your installation, especially if you run Apache as a service or not) cannot read E:/.. due to Windows restrictions. The Windows rights management does not allow Apache (i.e. the User, which executes Apache) to read E:/...
In case of a service, mostly the "System" User executes Apache, this User has restricted rights (i.e. it does not have the same rights as your UserID).
You cannot solve this issue in httpd.conf or similar, it is an OS issue. You must grant access to E:/... for that "Apache User".