Protect folder with password fails on localhost (u

I am trying to protect a folder from direct access with username and password on localhost under Apache webserver on Windows machine. According to this article, I've looked for DOCUMENT_ROOT value in phpinfo results and found the following: C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs.

Since my folder inside htdocs is called protected, I created the following htaccess file:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "restricted area"
AuthUserFile C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs/protected/.htpasswd
require valid-user

and the following .htpasswd (user:test, password: test)

test:teH0wLIpW0gyQ

But when I try to access the folder, I receive an "Internal Server Error". Looking on Apache error log, I found the following line:

[Thu Mar 13 22:00:15 2014] [alert] [client 127.0.0.1] C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs/protected/.htaccess: AuthUserFile takes 1-2 arguments, text file containing user IDs and passwords

What am I missing? I doesn't seem to be related to spaces in .htpasswd path, but something related to .htpasswd sintax. I would like to build something which can be used both on localhost and online.

UPDATE

Enclosing htpasswd path into inverted commas eliminates the error

AuthUserFile "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs/protected/.htpasswd"

but unfortunately doesn't work (if I type user:test, password:test when required I receive a password mismatch error). See the following apache log:

[Thu Mar 13 22:26:43 2014] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] user test: authentication failure for "/protected/": Password Mismatch

Any ideas?

Solved! Here the steps to configure Apache under windows to protect a folder with password (in this example I use "protected" as folder name and "htdocs" as location, but you can change them as you want):

create folder "protected" under "htdocs"
create .htaccess file inside "protected" containing the code below
go to this password generator tool and create your user and password
paste the obtained code to a .htpasswd file and put it inside "protected" folder
create a index.html file and put it inside "protected" folder
on your browser go to http://localhost/protected/
type username and password you've chosen

.htaccess

AuthType Basic
AuthName "restricted area"
AuthUserFile "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs/protected/.htpasswd"
require valid-user

Hope it helps somebody.