The requested URL was not found.. - url rewrite not working ?

I just installed a mini cms and I have added this site to my virtual host files. The base url is:
minicms.local

When I go to minicms.local in the browser I see the homepage correctly but when i click on a link thats past the index.php i got this browser message:
Not Found
The requested URL /whatson/ was not found on this server.

wth is going on?

I think it may have something to do with the .htaccess file in this site? because in the .htaccess file there is this:

RewriteRule ^whatson$ /whatson/ [R]
RewriteRule ^whatson/(template=([a-zA-Z]+))?$ /index.php?content=whatson&template=$2

If i go to the long url it works but the shorterned version doesnt?

basically this should work but doesnt:
minicms.local/whatson

instead i get this:
Not Found
The requested URL /whatson/ was not found on this server.

for some strange reason this link works and shows me the webpage correctly:
minicms.local/index.php?content=whatson&template=$2

If anyone has any ideas why the minicms.local/whatson/ doesnt work please let me know!?

This is in my apache vhost file:
<VirtualHost *:80>
   DocumentRoot "M:\web\websites\minicms"
   ServerName minicms.local
</VirtualHost>