I'm a little confused on why you've had the issue of having to paste this to the top of the configuration file. It should work wherever you type it in that file.
Glad it worked out for you, and as noted; Remember to do regular backups of your wallet.dat file
I commented on your post that it didn't work for me but got no reply, I also believe it's a windows related issue (maybe)
Moving to the topmost part came from my experience with PHP & $_Session.
Several uninstall and re-installation of different version of the wallet but no joy.
Glad it worked and a good help to others.