pulling hair out -- install, failed includes on apache 2.2 and iis6

hello -- i have spent the last couple hours reading through all the 'failed includes' posts trying to figure out what my install problem is.

i have a properly setup MS 2003sp1 box with apache + iis6 + php 5.2.5 + MySql 5.0.45. asp and php sites run along side on both web servers as i have two seperate ip's configured.

IIS6 + PHP 5.2.5 running on IP 200.11
Apache 2.2 + PHP 5.2.5 on IP 200.12

common denominator is that both web servers use the same PHP 5.2.5 files. However i have other php sites on both servers which run fine (these sites do not have zencart installed). so i'm pretty sure it's not the php.ini file.

when trying to run the installer i get

Warning: include(includes/installer_params.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in ..\zencart_iis\zc_install\includes\application_top.php on line 41

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'includes/installer_params.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in ..\zencart_iis\zc_install\includes\application_top.php on line 41

-the include path in the php.ini file has the '.' above in both scenarios
-all missing files exist in the proper directories
-i have re-downloaded the zencart zip file again from sourceforge (zen-cart-v1.3.8a-full-fileset-12112007)
-i have ftp'd the files again using FileZilla
-i made sure the IUSR account has read+execute on the entire folder structure
-i also followed the install instructions regarding the additional folders that need r+w+e permissions
-i get a similar error on the admin page this time on line 61

Warning: include(includes/configure.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in E:\Website_data\zencart_iis\admin\includes\application_top.php on line 61

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'includes/configure.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in E:\Website_data\zencart_iis\admin\includes\application_top.php on line 61

please advise :cry:

i also ran WinMerge on the zencart folder (before i renamed dist-configure.php) and it came up a match 100%

:censored: in my php.ini file the include_path had a colon instead of a semi-colon... even though i looked at this all morning i didnt see it :)

moving on...

confirmed database tables creation error with MySQL 5.0.45

need to go into zc_install/sql/ edit mysql_zencart.sql

replace every instance of TYPE=MyISAM with ENGINE=MyISAM