How to remove index.php from URL

[eluser]justjiten[/eluser]
Yes I am working on XAMPP in Windows. but the index.php is not removed at all.

Code:

http://localhost/ci/index.php/welcome

working fine, but when I type

Code:

http://localhost/ci/welcome

It is showing the error404 Object Not Found.

I have set config.php like

Code:

$config['base_url'] = 'http://localhost/ci/';
$config['index_page'] = ' ';
$config['uri_protocol'] = 'REQUEST_URI';

autoload.php like

Code:

$autoload['libraries'] = array('database');
$autoload['helper'] = array('url','form');

and routes.php like

Code:

$route['default_controller'] = "welcome";
$route['404_override'] = '';

My .htaccess file is like

Code:

RewriteBase /ci/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [NC,L,QSA]

please help me to remove index.php from url, I am using CI version 2.1.2