Apache Handlers allow you to control how Apache will manage certain file types. When Apache recognizes a file, it has an action built in for that file type and will perform that action. If you want Apache to perform a different action, you will need to make a handler to tell Apache to perform that action.

For example, if you use a file type that requires a special service in order to run, such as a file with server-side includes that is not named with a .shtml extension, you need to tell Apache to treat these files differently.