title: TemplateDoesNotExist in django
body: <p><em>Hello, I am new to learning django and I am stuck with this TemplateDoesNotExist error</em> </p>
  
  <p>I am running Windows 8</p>
  
  <p>When i check the error page, the value TEMPLATE_DIRS is ['C:/ENVS/boardgames/boardgames/templates'] and this path is completely right. From there I need to load 'helloworld.html' as template</p>
  
  <p>I do this in <strong>Views.py</strong> like this</p>
  
  <pre><code>from django.views.generic.base import TemplateView
  from django.http import HttpResponse
  
  
  class HelloWorldView(TemplateView):
      template_name='helloworld.html'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Settings.py</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>"""
  Django settings for boardgames project.
  
  Generated by 'django-admin startproject' using Django 1.8.
  
  """
  
  # Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
  import os
  
  BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
  
  
  
  # SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
  SECRET_KEY = '*r7$d%0eg(^7e&amp;-ad)%(17zv-zm-3m87uroxe+9+e)4&amp;qg4w(a'
  
  # SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
  DEBUG = True
  
  ALLOWED_HOSTS = []
  
  
  # Application definition
  
  INSTALLED_APPS = (
      'django.contrib.admin',
      'django.contrib.auth',
      'django.contrib.contenttypes',
      'django.contrib.sessions',
      'django.contrib.messages',
      'django.contrib.staticfiles',
      'boardgames',
  )
  
  MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
      'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
      'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
      'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
      'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
      'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware',
      'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
      'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
      'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
  )
  
  ROOT_URLCONF = 'boardgames.urls'
  
  TEMPLATES = [
      {
          'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
          'DIRS': [],
          'APP_DIRS': True,
          'OPTIONS': {
              'context_processors': [
                  'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                  'django.template.context_processors.request',
                  'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                  'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
              ],
          },
      },
  ]
  
  WSGI_APPLICATION = 'boardgames.wsgi.application'
  
  
  
  DATABASES = {
      'default': {
          'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
          'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
      }
  }
  
  
  # Internationalization
  
  
  LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
  
  TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
  
  USE_I18N = True
  
  USE_L10N = True
  
  USE_TZ = True
  
  
  # Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
  
  
  STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  TEMPLATE_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates').replace('\\','/')]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and <strong>Url.py</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>from django.conf.urls import include, url
  from django.contrib import admin
  
  from .views import HelloWorldView
  urlpatterns = [
      # Examples:
       url(r'^$', HelloWorldView.as_view(), name='home'),
      # url(r'^blog/', include('blog.urls')),
  
      url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
  ]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I look at the tutorials there are it seems so easy. And it actually works when I copy the templates folder to django\contrib directory. I am really in pain. But I want it done properly and load templates from the directory I want them to be in</p>
  
  <p><em>What am I doing wrong? Please help</em></p>