I am using some kind of software that requires me to disable thread protection. I am working on a windows server. From what I read elsewhere, I cannot just configure this in a .ini file. It's true? If so, how do I compile it to disable thread safety?
You must compile PHP with ZTS disabled (compilation flag --disable-zts) or download binaries with ZTS disabled.
--disable-zts
This will not work properly in some web servers, namely those that process multiple PHP scripts simultaneously in the same process.
PHP Windows
You can download the latest version of Zend Optimizer, which has thread safety at http://downloads.zend.com/optimizer/3.3.0/ZendOptimizer-3.3.0-linux-glibc23-x86_64.tar.gz
This is the command --disable-maintainer-zts. Try --disable-posix-threads to.