PHP can't find php.ini configuration file

Question

I am running a webserver with Apache2.4 and have added the following lines in the httpd configuration file to setup php with Apache:

# PHP8 module
PHPIniDir "c:/php"
LoadModule php_module "c:/php/php8apache2_4.dll"
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

I have both php and Apache extracted to their respective folders directly under my c:/ drive and have setup the windows PATH variable for php.

Output from phpinfo():

Configuration File (php.ini) Path  no value
Loaded Configuration File          (none)

EDIT: On Windows php.ini does not exist and must be created by copying either php-ini-development or php-ini-production (or re-naming either file to php.ini) however this did not solve the issue