When installing phpMyAdmin the most common error is not being able to connect to the database after installation.
#1045 - Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
Here is the solution:
Make sure your config file in the phpMyAdmin directory is named "config.inc.php"!
In the installation instuctions it says to copy config.default.php into the phpMyAdmin directory and then customize it (usually the only change needed is to change the 'auth_type' is changed from 'config' to 'http'). Make sure to rename config.default.php to config.inc.php.