I'm having quite a weird problem here.
I have just pasted the Yii folder into my htdocs folders and, for some reason, apache can't see one specific folder within the Yii folder, which is called "framework". I.e., when I type http://localhost/yii , apache correctly lists all sub-folder within the Yii folder except for the "framework" folder!
When I try to call this folder directly from the browser (i.e. writing http://localhost/yii/framework) I get a 403 Access forbidden error.
I'm at a loss here, why isn't apache listing one single folder? The folder which it cannot see is no different from the ones it can see.. I've even removed the read-only attribute from all folders within htdocs but to no avail.
P.S.: my OS is windows Vista sp2
I'm not sure why you are even trying to view the framework folder directly. It does have an .htaccess file in it which says "deny from all". Just make sure you have the correct path for the "yii.php" file inside the framework folder set in the index.php file in your web root.
PHP can include files that are inside "deny from all" folders but you can't browse them directly via a web browser.
Try working through one of tutorials from the start: