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### Using Virtual Directories (Windows Hosting)

A virtual directory in Parallels Plesk Panel is a link to existing physical directory that is present on the server's hard disk. Virtual directories can have a number of specific settings like custom ASP.NET configuration, access permissions, URL password protection, and so on.

Since any virtual directory can have its own settings, including customized ASP.NET configuration, virtual directories are very useful in setting up your web applications, especially those written in ASP.NET. For example, if you have three web applications that use ASP.NET version 1.1, and you need to install one web application that uses ASP.NET version 2.0, you can create a virtual directory for the ASP.NET 2.0 application, configure ASP.NET settings for this directory, enabling version 2.0 only for this directory, and successfully install the required application.

Virtual directories can also be used as aliases. For example, you have a web application installed on your domain 'example.com' in the physical folder '`/my_data/web_apps/forum`'. To access this web application, users need to type '`example.com/my_data/web_apps/forum`', which is hard to remember and too long to type. You can create virtual directory '`forum`' in the root of your virtual host, and link this virtual directory to '`/my_data/web_apps/forum`', so users who want to access the web application have to type '`example.com/forum`' , which is much shorter and easier to remember.

To open a virtual directory in your browser:

1. Click the Domains shortcut in the navigation pane.
2. Click the required domain name in the list.
3. Click Virtual Directories (in the Files group).
4. Click the icon corresponding to the directory you wish to open.

In this section: Creating Virtual Directories Changing Virtual Directory Settings Adding and Removing MIME Types Setting PHP Version for Virtual Directories Removing Virtual Directories