I've restarted the process on a WINXP machine, hoping the issue was either WIN7 or my multiple reinstalling of wamp/ss/php etc.
I've probably made progress, but in the meantime I've stumbled into another issue as revealed in the php-errors.log:
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PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'C:\Program Files\PHP\ext/php_curl.dll' - C:\Program Files\PHP\ext/php_curl.dll: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0
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THE ISSUE IS, my PHP folder is located in C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.2.11. (I'm using an older PHP because I'm having less problems with it) Not sure why the install looks in that directory, there's nothing that I could find in the files that would point there. Any ideas of how to redirect the install to the right PHP folder?
MANY thanks :)!
By the way @BigChris: I've found a way where installing out of a subdirectory is no longer necessary. Appreciate the support anyhow.
-Jonathan