cannot increase memory limit in localhost xampp installation

hi

i'm having a hard time increasing the memory limit of my local laptop version of my system. it means i can't test new changes, as i keep getting the white screen of death.

i have used xampp to setup an apache/mysql/php test environment on my laptop.

so when i test my site, i display http://localhost/catresort, in my browser.

i have a phpinfo.php file to display settings, in the root of my site.
if i display localhost/catresort/phpinfo.php it says memory limit is 32M
according to the phpinfo, the loaded config file is C:\xampp\apache\bin\php.ini

so i edited the php.ini to set it to 96M
if i bringup the xampp environment, and from http://localhost/xampp/ show the phpinfo file, it says 96M.

but the localhost/catresort one says it is still 32M.
so it's getting overridden somewhere. between the 96m of the php.ini, before my drupal executes.

i stuck an extra php.ini with just the memory override, into the catresort root directory, to try and set it to 96m, but it doesnt seem to take.

i edited the default.settings.php file, in sites/default, and tried to override it to 96m, but that didn't take either.

i don't execute htaccess, cos i never managed to get mod-rewrite working in localhost mode. so i can't override it there - htaccess breaks my local version. (its fine in prod)

is there another place where the memory limit could be getting overridden or set?
i've scanned my files for 32M, but can't find it anywhere.
every instance i have already changed to 96m

please help!

(my aunt has a cat resort. myself, i like dogs)