How to change Default Document (Start Page) in Parallels Plesk Account

When a Hosting Account is setup, it has some default settings which can be changed from you Hosting Control Panel. Default Document (Start Page) of website is one of them. Generally, the homepage file name of your website is named “index.html” or “index.htm” or “index.php” or “default.aspx” so that when the domain name is entered in browser, your homepage loads automatically even though its name is not typed. This is because the document names mentioned earlier are added in the list of Default Documents by default. In some cases you may need to add your own file name to the list to make it Start Page of your website (for ex. “login.aspx, home.html etc.). This article guides you on how to change the Default Document list in Parallels Plesk Windows Hosting Account.

You can set your own Default Document by following below steps:

1. Login to your Hosting Control Panel.

2. Click on your Domain Name shown in large fonts on Homepage after login.

3. Click on the option “Virtual Directories” from the list of icons that appears.

4. Click on the option “Virtual Directory Properties” in top row of icons.

5. Here you will find the option to Add your own Default Document(s) to the existing list. Make sure that you move the file name that you add to the list to the top of list using the controls given next to the list. The documents are served by server in the order they appear in the list. If the file name first in the list is not found in public folder, then server will search for next file name and so on. Then save the settings to see changes on your website.

NOTE: On Windows Hosting Servers, when no file is found in your public folder matching names listed in Default Documents, you will get a 403 Forbidden error message.

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