I am using:

- Apache 2.2.6,
- PHP 5.2.5
- Windows XP
- web server root is c:\www

The instructions on this page are valid for MySQL 5.0 and higher.

1. Download MySQL
You can download mysql from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html#downloads . I have an AMB 64-bit processor but Windows XP is 32bit. So I could not use the 64 bit version. So I downloaded Windows ZIP/Setup.EXE (x86).

2. Unzip Software
Once the software is downloaded, you can unzip it anywhere you want.

3. Install & Configure
- double click the .exe file to start installation
- next
- choose custom
- next
- next
- install
- next
- next
- finish
Installation is complete. The configuration wizard would open automatically.
- next
- choose detailed configuration
- next
- choose developer machine
- next
- choose multifunctional database
- next
- next
- choose manual setting
- choose concurrent connections 10
- next
- next
- choose Best support for multilingualism
- next
- next
- type root password
- next
- execute

Worst Nightmare
Your worst nightmare in MySQL is to get the following error message:

can't connect to MySql server on 'localhost' <10061>

If you check the blogs, you will find hundreds of people crying for help and various different proposed solutions. The reason is the this error can occur due a whole range of problems. Finding out what exactly caused this error can be a challenge. I had to turn off my avast antivirus. Once installation was complete, I turned avast back on and everything worked fine.

Moment of Truth
Go to:

Start > MySQL > MySQL Server 5.0 > MySQL command line client

Type the password you defined. Type show databases;. If you don't get errors, your MySQL is running.