Installation curl warnings -- CURL not installed on XAMPP on XP?

Purchased Zen Cart emanual and downloading latest software versions locally to my XP computer per manual's instructions. I have installed/configured XAMPP and am trying to install ZC Keep getting warning "curl not compiled into PHP..." I did, however, modify apache/bin/php.ini as instructed and don't know what else to do.

While I never use a local install (always use a real webserver) when setting up sites, if I recall correctly, you'll need to stop and restart apache after editing the php.ini file in order for the changes to take effect.

Several php.ini files exists in different directories in a default XAMPP installation.

Do make sure that you are editing the correct one as stated in the book in order for cURL to be enabled.