Making nice Urls in Yii - .htaccess

Question

I red a lot of tuttorials, but all lead me to the same error - Error 500 - Either the server is overloaded or there was an error in a CGI script.
I'm using xampp on Windows and cofigured httpd.conf like this
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
changed in yii main.php
'urlManager'=>array(
'urlFormat'=>'path',
'showScriptName'=>false,
'caseSensitive'=>false,
'rules'=>array(
'' => 'site/index',
'<controller:\w+>/<id:\d+>'=>'<controller>/view',
'<controller:\w+>/<action:\w+>/<id:\d+>'=>'<controller>/<action>',
'<controller:\w+>/<action:\w+>'=>'<controller>/<action>',
),
),
and added .htaccess in root folder (the same level where protected folder)
Options +FollowSymLinks
IndexIgnore */*
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /tests/
# if a directory or a file exists, use it directly
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# otherwise forward it to index.php
RewriteRule . index.php
But no matter what I write in .htaccess, I get this error. When I commented all out, links from yii are generated ok (without index.php), but then I have 404 error, because of wrong server configuration.
EDIT:
And error.log last few records:
[Wed Nov 27 11:32:31.100063 2013] [core:alert] [pid 9520:tid 1572] [client ::1:58620] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 11:32:31.372163 2013] [core:alert] [pid 9520:tid 1572] [client ::1:58621] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 11:32:34.674379 2013] [core:alert] [pid 9520:tid 1572] [client ::1:58622] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 11:32:36.587084 2013] [core:alert] [pid 9520:tid 1572] [client ::1:58623] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 11:32:54.899832 2013] [core:alert] [pid 9520:tid 1572] [client ::1:58624] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 11:54:14.056192 2013] [core:alert] [pid 9520:tid 1572] [client ::1:59297] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 11:54:14.687425 2013] [core:alert] [pid 9520:tid 1572] [client ::1:59298] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:27.459885 2013] [ssl:warn] [pid 11320:tid 308] AH01909: RSA certificate configured for www.example.com:443 does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:27.525911 2013] [core:warn] [pid 11320:tid 308] AH00098: pid file C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/apache/logs/httpd.pid overwritten -- Unclean shutdown of previous Apache run?
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:27.588934 2013] [ssl:warn] [pid 11320:tid 308] AH01909: RSA certificate configured for www.example.com:443 does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:27.625947 2013] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 11320:tid 308] AH00455: Apache/2.4.4 (Win32) OpenSSL/1.0.1e PHP/5.5.1 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:27.625947 2013] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 11320:tid 308] AH00456: Server built: Feb 23 2013 12:42:00
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:27.625947 2013] [core:notice] [pid 11320:tid 308] AH00094: Command line: 'c:\users\kristineg\xamps\apache\bin\httpd.exe -d C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/apache'
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:27.627948 2013] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 11320:tid 308] AH00418: Parent: Created child process 4472
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:27.998083 2013] [ssl:warn] [pid 4472:tid 336] AH01909: RSA certificate configured for www.example.com:443 does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:28.143138 2013] [ssl:warn] [pid 4472:tid 336] AH01909: RSA certificate configured for www.example.com:443 does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:28.186154 2013] [mpm_winnt:notice] [pid 4472:tid 336] AH00354: Child: Starting 150 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:38.827074 2013] [core:alert] [pid 4472:tid 1640] [client ::1:61797] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:39.614364 2013] [core:alert] [pid 4472:tid 1652] [client ::1:61796] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:39.958491 2013] [core:alert] [pid 4472:tid 1640] [client ::1:61798] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 15:53:40.295616 2013] [core:alert] [pid 4472:tid 1652] [client ::1:61799] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here
[Wed Nov 27 16:32:32.894114 2013] [core:alert] [pid 4472:tid 1640] [client ::1:62407] C:/Users/kristineg/xamps/htdocs/xampp/tests/.htaccess: Options not allowed here

Answer 1

I think you don't have the mode_rewrite module loaded in your server's main config. For starters, modify your .htaccess so it looks like this:
IndexIgnore */*
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /tests/
# if a directory or a file exists, use it directly
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# otherwise forward it to index.php
RewriteRule . index.php
</IfModule>
If things change for the better (i.e. no 500-errors), see your main httpd.conf and look for a line that starts like this:
#LoadModule rewrite_module ...
Uncomment that line by removing the leading # and restart the server process.
As for the "Options not allowed here" error, see this answer.