[atariFu]

oast has a good idea about setting the UserDir.

It sounds like you have multiple files (possibly hundreds or more) that need to include this file.

What I would do is have a main include file that all scripts call regardless of what they are doing, this is handy for overriding anything at any point or passing variables between scripts.

In this global script just create a variable with your usual include file for the rest of your possibly hundreds of pages, eg:

<? // global php script
$standard_include_path = "C:\apache\htdocs\blah\etc\";
?>

<? // other page
include("global_script.php");
include($standard_include_path);
?>

This way when you are working at home you only have to change your include path in one place and when you upload everything to the server just change it there too, or you might not even have to since you may not even need to edit the global script.

Also note how I addressed the include path: C:\apache etc..

I believe this is the right way to include files in windows if you want to start at the root.

If you want to edit in a real live environment though why not go get a junker pc, put linux on there and run it on your subnet, way easier. Windows has other incompatibilities that you may need to write hacks for in your code.