Setting up server to auto detect PHP file name?

Wow, this has been much more complicated than I thought it would be. I bought a Zen Cart template for my site and have been trying to set it up all weekend. I'm finally to the point of starting the installer but am brought to a page that lists the file names and directories instead of the installation. It says that I need to set up autodected PHO filename extensions. How???

I'm using:

iMac
Safari
Dreamweaver CS5

You should talk to your hosting company to make sure they support PHP.
If you tell them the symptoms you're having, they should immediately recognize the problem and be able to fix it in seconds or point you to instructions on their website which show you how to do that for yourself using the controls they provide for managing your account services with them.

Do you know if 50 Megs supports it? I've sent them a message but haven't heard anything yet.

"50 Megs" refers to amount of disk space available. It has nothing to do with whether the hosting service includes PHP functionality.

50megs.com is the site that is hosting my web site.

Their Home page states you get PHP usage with their higher priced Personal Hosting package.

It sounds like you have the free hosting they provide and thus, cannot use PHP nor Zen Cart.

If you look at their website, their "Free" and "Starter" packages do not include support for PHP.

You'll find that the Certified Hosts link at the top of this page provides many additional good alternatives.

So I contacted my web site host and they told me I needed to move the ZC_Install file to a cng folder in order for it to work. I did that and it didn't work. Anyone know what I need to do?

a "cng" folder?

It seems pretty clear that your hosting company isn't up to the task of running an advanced system like Zen Cart.

So what do you recommend at this point? I just upgraded my site earlier this week to allow PHP but it sounds like this just isn't working. Am I better off to go with another hosting service? I just didn't want to have to wait the 5-8 days that I'm told it would take to transfer my domain.

If you have already discussed the problem with your Hoster, after moving files as requested, and they still cannot help then moving to another Hoster should not be that big of a problem. Not sure who told you it takes 5-8 days to transfer a Domain name but that's not quite right. After changing Nameservers it takes about 20 minutes for a .com .net .org to update and within 24-48 hrs most everyone is directed to the new Hosting server.