mod rewrite - How to enable mod_rewrite for Apache 2.2

I've got fresh install of Apache 2.2 on my Vista machine, everything works fine, except mod rewrite.

I've uncommented

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.s

but none of my rewrite rules works, even simple ones like

RewriteRule not_found %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/index.php?page=404

All the rules I'm using are working on my hosting, so they should be ok, so my question is, is there any hidden thing in apache configuration, that could block mod rewrite?

Answer

In order to use mod_rewrite you can type the following command in the terminal:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Restart apache2 after

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

or

sudo service apache2 restart

or as per new unified System Control Way

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Then, if you'd like, you can use the following .htaccess file.

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

The above .htaccess file (if placed in your DocumentRoot) will redirect all traffic to an index.php file in the DocumentRoot unless the file exists.

So, let's say you have the following directory structure and httpdocs is the DocumentRoot

httpdocs/
    .htaccess
    index.php

    images/
        hello.png
    js/
        jquery.js
    css/
        style.css
includes/
    app/
        app.php

Any file that exists in httpdocs will be served to the requester using the .htaccess shown above, however, everything else will be redirected to httpdocs/index.php. Your application files in includes/app will not be accessible.