1. Stop the mysqld.exe process. (a.

First I went to the start button, then programs, then MySQL, then MySQL System Tray Monitor. This opens a circular cog icon in the task bar [bottom of screen] which I right clicked. In the resulting menu I ensured MySQL was stopped. b. I held ctrl alt delete to open task manager found the mysqld.exe process and ended it.) 2. Start the mysqld.exe process with the --skip-grant-tables option (a. I went to the start button, then programs, then Accessories, then right clicked the command prompt item and chose "Run As Administrator". A black screen should open with something like C:\Users\Computer> b. Type cd/ then press enter. [Our goal will be to navigate to the folder which contains the mysqld.exe application. For me it was in C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin.] c. Type cd Program Files/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.1/bin then press enter. d. Type mysqld.exe --skip-grant-tables then press enter. Leave this window open. It will be locked to further typing however.) 3. Start the MySQL client with the -u root option. (a. Just like the steps in 2 above, I went to the start button, programs, accessories, opened the command prompt with a right click as administrator, then typed cd at the C:\Users\Computer> prompt, then cd Program Files/MySQL/MySQL Server 5.1/bin and enter. b. Then I typed c. I then typed = 'root'; mysql.exe -u root and then enter. We are about to alter the password, for the sake of argument let it be abc123 UPDATE mysql.user SET Password = PASSWORD('abc123') WHERE User and then enter.) then enter

d. I then typed FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

4. Close the command prompt windows, and you may need to end the mysqld.exe process before you can use the query browser (or other client application) I did. That's all. You probably don't need to configure the instance, but I did anyway, and it didn't hang at step 4! I hope this works for you or some other person whose been unable to resolve this awkward issue.