How to install phpMyAdmin on Windows 7

Download the latest version of PhpMyAdmin at http://www.phpmyadmin.net, download the zip version as shown below:

Extract the zip file to the Apache Document Root (D:\My Websites). Rename the folder to "PhpMyAdmin" so the path to the folder is "D:\My Websites\PhpMyAdmin"

In the PhpMyAdmin folder find and rename "config.sample.inc.php" to "config.inc.php"

Open config.inc.php with Text editor (Notepad).

Find the line below:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';

Replace it with the following lines and enter your MySQL Password:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']          = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']      = 'xxx'; //Enter MySql Password
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'config';

Save the file.

Open up PHP configuration file located at "C:\Apache\php\php.ini" find the extension below:

;extension=php_mbstring.dll

Uncomment the extension to activate it.

extension=php_mbstring.dll

Save the file and restart the Apache Server.

Open browser, in the address bar type in "http://localhost/phpmyadmin/"

At the bottom of the page you might see a warning message about phpMyAdmin configuration storage.

The phpMyAdmin needs a database to store data and information. The database can be imported from the phpMyAdmin installation folder using phpMyAdmin we've just installed.

At the top of the phpMyAdmin window click "Import"

In the "File to Import" browse to "D:\My Websites\phpMyAdmin\scripts\create_tables.sql" and then click "GO" to start importing the database.

If everything was going well a new database called "phpmyadmin" should be appear in the database list and showing a message that the importing database had been successfully finished.

Now open up phpMyadmin configuration file located at D:\My Websites\PhpMyAdmin\config.inc.php, find the lines below:

/* User used to manipulate with storage */
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = 'pma';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = 'pmapass';

/* Storage database and tables */
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] = 'phpmyadmin';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['bookmarktable'] = 'pma_bookmark';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation'] = 'pma_relation';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_info'] = 'pma_table_info';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_coords'] = 'pma_table_coords';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['pdf_pages'] = 'pma_pdf_pages';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info'] = 'pma_column_info';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['history'] = 'pma_history';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking'] = 'pma_tracking';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['designer_coords'] = 'pma_designer_coords';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['userconfig'] = 'pma_userconfig';
/* Contrib / Swekey authentication */
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config'] = '/etc/swekey-pma.conf';

Uncomment the lines to enable them. Change the controluser with "root" and enter your MySql Password.

/* User used to manipulate with storage */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = 'xxx'; // Enter MySql Password

/* Storage database and tables */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] = 'phpmyadmin';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['bookmarktable'] = 'pma_bookmark';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation'] = 'pma_relation';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_info'] = 'pma_table_info';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_coords'] = 'pma_table_coords';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pdf_pages'] = 'pma_pdf_pages';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info'] = 'pma_column_info';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['history'] = 'pma_history';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking'] = 'pma_tracking';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['designer_coords'] = 'pma_designer_coords';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['userconfig'] = 'pma_userconfig';
/* Contrib / Swekey authentication */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config'] = '/etc/swekey-pma.conf';

Save the file and refresh your browser to see the changes, the warning message should be disappear by now.

Update for phpMyAdmin 3.5.+

If you want to upgrade previous version to phpMyAdmin 3.5.+, just delete all files and folders in phpMyAdmin folder except "config.inc.php"

Unzip new phpMyAdmin into phpMyAdmin folder, open up "config.inc.php"

Add the following lines into the storage database and tables.

/* Storage database and tables */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_uiprefs'] = 'pma_table_uiprefs';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['recent'] = 'pma_recent';

Save the file, open up your browser, navigate to "http://localhost/phpmyadmin/" and re-import "create_tables.sql" to update phpMyAdmin database and tables, the "create_tables.sql" file can be found in phpMyAdmin's "examples" folder.

My special thanks to Paul for his valuable comment:

I just installed phpMyAdmin 3.56 and found that the sql file is actually in /examples/ in this version; previously it was in /scripts/ Once I figured this out, and that I had to log off and then log back on to get the phpmyadmin settings to work ...

To enable login/logout feature, you can follow the steps below.

Enable phpMyAdmin Login/Logout

In the phpMyadmin configuration file find the line below:

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ''; /* YOU MUST FILL IN THIS FOR COOKIE AUTH! */

Enter a value of your choice

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'xaqedtrgiy';

Change the Authentication type with "cookie"

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';

And remove the two lines below or you could just add a double slash "//" in front of them.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']          = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']      = 'xxx'; //Enter MySql Password

Done.