I would like some detailed instructions on how to set up phpMySQLAdmin
on my notebook computer so that I can use it as a testing server for
php NUKE web content.

This is what I have done so far:
1. I have installed the latest PHP stable version on the XP machine,
when I run a phpinfo() I get all the details that it is installed OK. 
So I am pretty sure it is fine.  I restart IIS a few times as well.
2. Installed MySQL using the windows installer package.  Seems to
install OK. When I log in as 'root' with my password, using the
command line prompt, I can see the tables in there that come with
MySQL.  All seems OK.
3. I dowload phpMySQLAdmin-2.6.1 and copy the files needed into a
directory in the root of my local machine.  ie.
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\phpMySQLAdmin-2.6.1\
4. I open the IIS control panel and set up full access privileges on
this folder so that it can read/write/runscripts; and I restart IIS.
5. I edit the config.inc.php file in the phpMySQLAdmin directory and
change host to 'localhost', and auth type to 'http' as recommened.
6. I browse to the file localhost/phpmysqladmin-2.6.1/index.php and
the trouble starts!  It won't let me into the MySQL server.  I have
tried changing my passwords and creatibng another username to log in
with but still the same.

It seems that there is some settings with IIS on my local machine that
are not right.  I know that IIS works fine becauase I can browse other
pages and sites that I have set up on it.  This is my first real go at
using PHP NUKE, and I have got it working fine on my 'live' web server
using phpmysqladmin but cannot get it going locally.

What I need is an ultrabasic and thorough set up steps to go through
to get this baby up and running.

Andrew