How do you get phpmyadmin to work after you have changed or given mysql a password?

I have recently install XAMPP on my machine which made installing Apache, MySQL and PHP a doddle. I have to confess I wouldn't of had a clue how to install these components individually and whilst I'm sure I could have located and installed them, XAMPP makes this damn easy!

Whilst XAMPP is a great tool it is for development purposes by default and openly warns you that there are some big security holes left open on installation - so don't use, certainly out of the box, as a production environment.

One of the open features of the installation is the MySQL is installed with a blank root password. Using the latest version of XAMPP there is a fantastic web page found using the security link on the \localhost\xamp page that allows you to secure folders and set a mysql root password. On an older version this assistant is not available, so me being me I setup a root password for mySQL just for neatness on my development box. Alas, after doing so the phpmyadmin page no longer longer loads because it cannot connect to the database - doh. Ok, so all you need to do to solve this is locate the config.inc.php file in the phpmyadmin folder under the xampp install folder and open the file up in a text editor. Have a look for ['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'root' and there will also be a statement that follows that is for ['password'] = '' obviously from here you can update the password and reload your admin.

I will add, and I have to admit being unable to remember at this second, you may need to restart Apache after making this change. I would make the change, retry the page - if you retry the page and you are sure you have entered the correct credentials and it still fails then give it a restart!