Prevent Code Execution from External Acess - apache

Question

Here is my directory structure
root
private
public
Using .htaccess and/or httpd.conf, I want to limit access to the private folder to only code executed from the root folder. So, no external access to anything in the private folder. Honestly, I have tried a lot of options, but nothing seems to work.
My test environment is XAMPP - installed on my local machine.
EDIT
One of the issues I encountered was using the wrong directory path. I created a simple PHP page with just phpinfo()
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
In the PHP Variables section, I looked for _SERVER["CONTEXT_DOCUMENT_ROOT"]. I used this for the directory path and then added private (the folder in the root that I wanted to limit access to). Thus, my completed code in the httpd.conf is below:
<Directory "E:/xampp/htdocs/home/private">
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directory>

Answer 1

Using Order deny,allow and Deny from all should be already sufficient
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
If you put this in a .htaccess in the private folder, all access from outside will be prohibited.
Alternatively, you can put it in a <Directory /path/to/root/private> in httpd.conf, which has the same effect
<Directory /path/to/root/private>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directory>
Update:
According to Apache HTTP Server Tutorial: .htaccess files you should prefer httpd.conf over .htaccess files
You should avoid using .htaccess files completely if you have access to httpd main server config file. Using .htaccess files slows down your Apache http server. Any directive that you can include in a .htaccess file is better set in a Directory block, as it will have the same effect with better performance.