I have reviewed every question on this and still no solution.
I can confirm that
1 - php.ini is correctly referencing php_curl.dll (and this is the ini file in use)
2 - xampp/php is in my path
3 - I have copied various dlls to windows/system32
Started and stopped server a million times - still get curl_init() is undefined.
According to php installation I need this:
"In order to enable this module on a Windows environment, libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll, or, as of OpenSSL 1.1 libcrypto-.dll and libssl-.dll, must be present in your PATH. Also libssh2.dll must be present in your PATH. You don't need libcurl.dll from the cURL site. "
I have done all of the above and still does not work. I have also installed OpenSSL on my pc.
What am I missing???