Installing and verifying MySQL

I installed MySQL today (March 06, 2014 )for the first time. It's on Windows 8, 64 bit machine.
We can install it independently, but it is easy to install as a package which contains other things Apache, PHP, etc along with MySQL.

I chose AMPPS, from http://www.ampps.com/downloads
Which contains following things

Includes	Windows	MAC OS X
Softaculous AMPPS	4.4.3	4.4.3
Apache	2.4.7	2.4.7
MySQL	5.6.16	5.6.15
PHP	5.5.9, 5.4.25 and 5.3.28	5.5.9, 5.4.25 and 5.3.28
PERL	5.10.1	5.14.1
Python	2.7.2	2.7.2
MongoDB(64-bit)	2.4.9	2.4.9

I installed it under C:/Server/

Verify that your firewall is not blocking mysql and the port 3036.
Verify in the windows services.
Start a "command prompt" folder in Ampps/mysql/bin
Enter the command

    mysql -u root -p

it will ask for the password. Default password is mysql

It will take you to mysql command prompt.

Type quit to exit to Windows command prompt