Nick Bartlett“Every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.” - Emerson

By default mod_rewrite module is not enabled in apache with XAMPP.

To enable mod_rewrite in xampp first go to the directory of installation <xampp-directory>\apache\conf and edit httpd.conf. Find the line that contains
#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
uncomment this(should be):

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Also find AllowOverride None

Should be:

AllowOverride All

AllowOverride appears 2 or 3 times on the configuration file.  Change all of them.