PHP and Windows (newbie!!)

Hello everybody! I'm just entering the wonderful world of PHP and i already have a doubt. I installed the apache server on my Windows ME :-p, to use for local tests. I have to acess it manually (meaning i have to click the apache startup everytime i want to do something...). Anyway i proceded to install PHP (on c:\php\, and everything went ok. I test my first php file ( a simple echo command) at the http://localhost directory (or c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs). It all went ok. So i started wondering if it detected a php outside of that path, like in the desktop or some other folder (since i'm very keen on having my sites in specif folders). Unfortunately it didn't, it just showed the php as a txt file. Is there anyway to make the files readable everywhere? Thanks in advance, Tiago Simões