Once MySQL Administrator has been started, it displays a connection dialog. You have to specify the MySQL server to which you would like to connect, the credentials needed for authorization on that server, and which machine that server runs on (and which port it listens to). You may also specify a number of other options, if required.
Note that MySQL Administrator will not work with MySQL servers prior to version 4.0. If you try to connect to an older server, an error message will appear, telling you that this is not possible.
If the server connection is successfully established, all of the values filled in the fields of the connection dialog will be saved for future connections (see the section that describes how MySQL Administrator stores connection information). The Password field, however, will always be empty: For security reasons, the password is not stored along with the other options, unless you explicitly specify otherwise in the General Options section of the Options dialog.
If you are using MySQL Administrator for the first time, you will find a preconfigured connection profile labeled localhost in the Connection drop-down box. Selecting that preconfigured connection will connect you to a MySQL server on the local host, under the username root and without specifying a password. This corresponds to the initial root account configuration of a newly installed MySQL server on all platforms. In other words: If you are connecting to a MySQL server on the local host that has not yet been secured against unauthorized access (see The MySQL Access Privilege System), you can connect to that MySQL server by just clicking .
You can change any of the values in the preconfigured connection profile just by overwriting the existing values with new ones. Similarly, if you select another connection profile, you can change any of its values. When you click the Connection drop-down box. That brings up an Options dialog window that has a Connections section for modifying connection profiles. You can find the values you can set in the Connection dialog window in the description of the Connections section of the Options dialog (see Options dialog).
button after changing a profile's values, the changes are stored permanently if a successful connection to the MySQL server is established. However, the preferred method for changing a profile is to click the button next to the