Apache :: Unable To Set Up Password Protection On HTTP Server

I'm trying to set up password protection on an Apache HTTP server, and it's not working.

First, the environment: Apache 2.4.4 installed with XAMPP Control Panel 3.2.1 under Windows 7 Professional.

http.config says "AllowOverride All."

The .htaccess file in the protected directory says:

Code:
htpasswd -c .htpasswd samples

htpasswd prompted me for the password twice, and I entered it twice. When it quit I had a file named .htpasswd in the subsidy directory. I typed it and its contents looked correct according to the examples I've seen.

Then I restarted Apache and tried to load a page from the directory. The browser simply prompted me for the username and password over and over.

The Apache error log says, "AH01617: user samples: authentication failure for "/subsidy/filename.html": Password Mismatch."

I deleted the .htpasswd file and ran htpasswd again, specifying a different (very simple) password. I also confirmed that caps lock was not on both before and after. I restarted the server, tried to load a page, and got the same problem.

Apache seems to think I'm entering the wrong password, but that seems impossible when I've just defined it myself -- and I've tried twice, intentionally choosing a very simple password the second time. If the message means what it says, the cause must be something very different from the obvious one.