help, cannot get "Static Pages" to work from the user guide :(

Do mysite.com/index.php/pages work for you? In that case your .htaccess file aren't loaded.
https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/artic...k-in-Plesk
https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/artic...-Not-Found

Virtual host are what point your domain to your website folder, it's an Apache term. As you said you used it.

This is my .htaccess file.  mysite.com/index.php/pages works.  It shows the default welcome page.  .htaccess works fine for my other Plesk domains and I don't get 404.  Note, I DO now get a 404 if I do: mysite.com/index.php/pages/home (I setup "my first app" by following the user guide):

Code:

# Disable directory browsing
Options All -Indexes

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Rewrite engine
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

# Turning on the rewrite engine is necessary for the following rules and features.
# FollowSymLinks must be enabled for this to work.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    Options +FollowSymlinks
    RewriteEngine On

    # If you installed CodeIgniter in a subfolder, you will need to
    # change the following line to match the subfolder you need.
    # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritebase
    # RewriteBase /

    # Redirect Trailing Slashes...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]

    # Rewrite "www.example.com -> example.com"
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
    RewriteRule ^ http://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

    # Checks to see if the user is attempting to access a valid file,
    # such as an image or css document, if this isn't true it sends the
    # request to the front controller, index.php
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^([\s\S]*)$ index.php/$1 [L,NC,QSA]

    # Ensure Authorization header is passed along
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .
    RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
</IfModule>

<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
    # If we don't have mod_rewrite installed, all 404's
    # can be sent to index.php, and everything works as normal.
    ErrorDocument 404 index.php
</IfModule>

# Disable server signature start
    ServerSignature Off
# Disable server signature end