I know this question is old, however I ran into this problem on Windows 8.1 while trying to use .htaccess files for rewriting. My solution was simple, I forgot to modify the following line in httpd.conf
#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
to
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
Restarted the apache monitor, now all works well. Just posting this as an answer because someone in the future may run across the same issue with a simple fix.
Good luck!
