ERROR 1045 (28000) Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost'

For this problem there are at least 3-4 workarounds
You will need to reset the password.

But first make sure you are using the password
used as admin to log in Windows.
When later phpMyAdmin starts you can change that in Privileges.

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1)

first try this:
open the hosts file and add:
0.0.0.0  localhost
255.255.255.255  localhost
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2)

if the previous tip didn't work, try this:

In /home/admin/www/phpMyAdmin/config.inc.php
comment this line:
#$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = implode ('', file ('../mysql_password'));
and use the expanded password:
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']  = 'myNewPassword';
---->>
then launch mySql and go to:
/home/admin/www/mysql_password
and change the old pass with the new one
---->>
then go back to: config.inc.php and uncomment the previous line
OR
use the expanded password
Quit the server, relaunch

Ref.:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/resetting-permissions.html

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3)

First start the mysql server instance or daemon with
the --skip-grant-tables option. (security setting)

Then Execute these statements.
# mysql -u root mysql
mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('your_new_password') where USER='root';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> quit

Finally, restart the instance/daemon without the --skip-grant-tables option.
Ref.: http://forums.mysql.com/read.php?11,34014,46593#msg-46593

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4)

If you need to reset the password in Windows environment
You can add "--console" at the end of the command to show the output in your
console instead of logfile.
For example:
C:\> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\mysqld-nt.exe"
--defaults-file="C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\my.ini"
--init-file=C:\mysql-init.txt --console

If you have your server setup correctly, you will see:
060201 0:53:44 [Note] mysqld-nt: ready for connections.
Version: '5.0.18-nt' socket: '' port: 3306 MySQL Community Edition (GPL)

Where you need to shutdown the server, you can open another
windows cmd console.
Use "mysqladmin -u root -p shutdown" to shutdown the MySQL server.
It will prompt you to enter a password, and you can enter the password
you specified in the mysql-init.txt file.

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5)

If nothing worked, check:
http://wiki.cihar.com/pma/FAQ_4.4
http://wiki.cihar.com/pma/Config#Server.28s.29_configuration
http://center.uniformserver.com./uniserver/security_check_list.html

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junk
script: mysql_fix_privilege_tables
mysql --no-defaults --force --user=root --host=localhost --database=mysql

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