yes... as a matter of fact, i eventually figured out that it comes out of the box named php.ini-development and php.ini-production. lol so i used development, and i was able to get netbeans to accept it.
however i am still having problems loading the page using easyphp. i'm assuming its because i set the project up wrong in netbeans, under the deployment method dropdown there were two options which caught my eye, one was local host, and the other was built in php server. i believe i selected the build in one, but i'm still getting 404 errors.
i suppose that is for another topic though, thanks for your speedy reply. i'll "solved" this topic and post a new one.
Thanks, Matt