Cannot access phpMyAdmin on localhost running XAMPP

Question

On my Windows computer, I installed XAMPP, and I'm attempting to run WordPress locally. Due to some connectivity issues, I am now completely unable to use phpMyAdmin. Is there a workaround for this other installing XAMPP again?

I tried setting user names/passwords in XAMPP's passwords.txt, wordpress wp-config.php, php config.inc.php files. In the php.config.inc.php file, I uncomment and set the password:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']

I see the following error notice when I attempt to access phpmyadmin on localhost:

Invalid settings prevent connection; mysqli real connect(): (HY000/1045): Access is blocked for "root" at "localhost" (using password: YES) When phpMyAdmin attempted to connect to the MySQL server, the connection was denied by the server. You should verify that the host, username, and password listed in your setup match the data provided by the MySQL server administrator.