title: Microsoft SQL PHP extensions won't load on Apache startup
body: <p>I'm running Apache24 on a Windows Server 2016 64bit and PHP 7.4.1
  I've been trying to get the Microsoft dlls to load on Apache startup, but have failed to find a solution. As I understand it, all that is required is to copy the .dlls to the PHP ext directory, and add the extensions to PHP.ini.</p>
  <p>I did read the similar posts on PHP extensions not loading. I have checked that the ext directory (e:\php74\ext) is correct in the PHP.ini file and that the files do exist in that directory, but I get these errors on starting Apache24:</p>
  <pre><code>PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Failed to load e:\\php74\\ext\\php_sqlsrv_74_ts_x64, The system cannot find the file specified.\r\n in Unknown on line 0
  PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Failed to load e:\\php74\\ext\\php_pdo_sqlsrv_74_ts_x64, The system cannot find the file specified.\r\n in Unknown on line 0
  </code></pre>
  <p>I don't understand where the double slashes are coming from, here is a snippet of the php.ini file:</p>
  <pre><code>; added extension for Microsoft SQL server
  extension=e:\php74\ext\php_sqlsrv_74_ts_x64
  extension=e:\php74\ext\php_pdo_sqlsrv_74_ts_x64
  </code></pre>
  <p>I've been at this for days. Guidance on what I am missing would be greatly appreciated.</p>