Sorted. Thanks Tony. the vhosts file was already there in the extra folder and was pointed to in the httpd.conf file just needed the # removed. Required a bit of repointing to where my website resided in the Apache folder structure but a restart and i see the holidaywebsite folder prefix has gone when I access it through the browser and i echo $_SERVER['php-self'] in the code. Many thanks.

Any advice - I am currently running Apache on Windows XP but my shared webspace is Linux. Obviously i dont notice any difference because i dont see the server. But was thinking of moving to a Linux CentOS virtual server environment and trying to install that on my laptop as a development environment. I have literally never used Linux in my life. Is it easy to isnatll/get to grips with and is CentOS the best installation of it? Cheers.