latest version of PHP won't let you....

After installing the latest version of PHP for windows, I have found that it won't let you use the exec() function. e.g. if you want to delete a file on a windows server, you would use exec("del $file"); rather than unlink("$file") which is for UNIX based servers. Or am I wrong and there is just a setting that needs to be enabled in php.ini file? This is quite an important thing, really. ? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ http://www.webmastersdog.com where website owners go. and talk about stuff. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++